Tempest
by Matteoarts
Summary: Typhon is destroyed, Harmony has been saved. But Tobias' work isn't finished yet. Visions from the Inferno in his mind tell him that there's a greater threat, something worse than anything either the Militia or IMC have seen before. Lead to a planet covered in storms, he and KT must find the source and end it ... before it ends them. (SEQUEL TO INFERNO)
1. Typhon

**NOTICE TO ALL READERS:**

" **Tempest" is a sequel to my other story, "Inferno". If you have not read it, I suggest looking through the story pages here, or accessing it through my author page. You will not know the characters or past events and references unless you've read the story before this. Thank you!**

* * *

"THE SOARING GRIFFIN", IN ORBIT AROUND EREBUS, 2 YEARS AND 3 MONTHS AGO

* * *

The large Tone exited the drop ship, and lumbered through the hangar. She seemed absentminded, as seen by the fact that several riflemen and Pilots had to quickly sidestep to avoid being trod upon under her large and heavy feet.

"KT!"

She stopped for a moment, but did not turn around. Gates quickly made her way next to the Titan, and looked up into the blue eye of her chassis.

"I know what just happened was awful, I… I can hardly believe it myself, but we have to pull through this." She gripped the edge of KT's leg, and shook it slightly as though to jostle some reassurance into her through force. "If we let ourselves fall apart, then we also destroy any hope we have of rescuing him. Be strong for him, please."

Slowly, KT's eye rotated to hold Gates in its field of view. She could sense the Titan analyzing her words of encouragement. Looking away, KT remained silent as she walked away towards the Titan barracks.

Gates just sighed, and sat down on the hangar floor. The rest of the 6-4 came over to her, noticing the odd exchange between the two.

"What was that about?" muttered Bear.

Gates shook her head sadly. Truthfully, she felt hopeless like the Titan; Four was a great friend to her as well. Maybe a little less than KT felt, considering the bond between the two of them. Never before had she seen such a bond between a Pilot and a Titan. She couldn't imagine what KT must be feeling, to have lost her other half twice now.

"Four stayed behind, made sure that the rest of us all got out safely."

For once, Davis had no smart quip to share. Droz simply looked at her. "He… he was the one who shut down the guns?"

She nodded. "That's not all. He's going to lay the groundwork for our victory. He's trying to plan ahead, for us to win this fight when the time comes for it. If there was a person more dedicated to bringing peace to the frontier, you'd be hard pressed to find 'em."

Gates looked out at where KT had disappeared off to. Unlike the Titan, she had to set an example and remain strong for the rest of the team. "I'm worried for her. How much damage a long-term separation from her pilot could do to her, how much trauma the AI mind can withstand before becoming corrupt. I can't see her linking with a new pilot either." She swallowed hard. "At this point, I doubt that there's any way she could form another emotional bond as strong as she's made with Four."

She looked back out the shields of the hangar, toward the dead planet of Erebus beyond.

"I hope each of them is strong enough to survive their ordeals alone."

* * *

TYPHON, PRESENT DAY

* * *

"…Commander Briggs, this is Gates of the 6-4. Are we late to the party?"

She heard an audible sigh of relief from the commander on the other end of the line. _"You're just in time, Gates. How much juice do you have left in the Malta?"_

Gates checked the control console of the ship they'd commandeered. "We've got plenty to spare. Don't worry, Coop, we've got your back!" She spoke on the open channel, trying to urge the newly-dubbed Pilot Cooper forward. He was the only one of them who could complete the mission at this point, their only hope of stopping the Ark in time.

Bear, standing next to her, quickly began to input some commands, then looked at the cliff-side where Cooper and BT were attempting to charge through. "Targeting systems online… we are weapons-hot!"

A Scorch standing in their way was quickly highlighted. "Firing! Danger close!" called Bear. The massive cannons of the Malta activated, sending a volley of destructive projectiles tearing through the scores of enemies on the cliff, and lessening the oppressive pressure on the pair.

"Firing!" Bear yelled again, and sent another salvo of missiles raining down on the enemy Titans. Mechanical limbs flew everywhere as their owners were blown to bits in order to clear the way for Cooper and BT.

Droz looked at a different monitor, one that was giving an odd reading. "Captain, you might want to look at this."

Hearing the urgent tone in his voice, Gates quickly moved to see what he was referring to. What she saw on the monitor made her freeze.

 _WARNING: INFERNO FLARE._

She looked at the readings, and saw that the energy signal that they'd used to find Typhon in the first place was indeed flaring up again. And she knew what that meant.

 _He's alive._

She pointed at Droz, standing by and waiting for her word. "Get a lock on that signal, find out where it is. They've got to have a record of where they're keeping him."

He nodded, and immediately went to work while she hailed Briggs on the radio again, this time on a closed channel. "Briggs, we may have found him."

" _Him?"_

She nodded, though Briggs couldn't see her. "Four! the Inferno, the one who led us here to Typhon in the first place!"

The commander sounded conflicted. _"Gates…"_

Gates was a bit unsettled by the tone in her voice. "What? What is it?"

Droz looked up. "I've got a hit, he's close! He's near the weapon, opposite of the way Cooper went!"

Briggs heard, and sighed over the comms. _"I'm sorry. I know that we owe him, but… I can't justify risking more lives today for one man. For all we know, the reason he's survived this long is because he's working with them now."_

Gates was shocked at the cynicism. "You want us... to leave him?"

" _We don't have many options here, and our backs are against the wall to take out the Ark anyway. So yes... I hate to say that's an order."_

She looked out to see the back of BT disappear into the complex as he and Cooper went to carry out the mission. She couldn't tell them to help and risk the primary mission, and Gates had a point. She wouldn't want to risk others' lives either.

But if they didn't do anything, then he might be left behind again. Might even be killed this time.

"Damn it all," she exclaimed, throwing proper judgement aside. She cut the connection with Briggs, and began issuing orders. "Bear, get us close to that cliff! I'm going to go get him."

She wasn't going to abandon him again.

Bear hesitated for only a moment before nodding. He knew what this meant to her and began nudging the Malta forward, closing the gap of several hundred meters until they were relatively close. Gates stepped out through the broken window that BT had smashed earlier, and began to race towards the nose of the ship.

"Get a Widow ready! If I'm not back in ten minutes, then get out of here!" She picked up speed as she ran, making her legs work with the strength that only a Pilot's legs would gain after the grueling training they all went through.

Finally reaching the end of ground to stand on, she leapt off towards the cliff face. She definitely had enough force to propel herself far enough, and would more than land in the safe zone of ground below. Using her jump kit right before she hit the ground to slow her massive momentum, she landed neatly and looked up to one of several frigates in orbit above, the ones waiting around Typhon for the rest of the Militia forces to evac.

She held a hand up to her helmet, changing frequencies. "This is Captain Gates, requesting a Titanfall at this position," she said, using her wrist interface to select a small are a few meters in front of her.

It was time to finish this.

…

KT felt herself activate in her titanfall pod, confused as to why. She wasn't supposed to be activated for battle, they had other Titans for that. It was standard regulation to refrain from having an unattended Titan engaged on the battlefield, so why-

" _KT, this is Gates. I'm going to need you down here."_

She paused. The Captain was an old friend, but surely would be more than capable without her. Still, she was willing to help. "Understood. I am ready to provide assistance."

She could hear Gates sigh on the comms as her pod was jettisoned down below. Was it something she said?

No matter. She would find out in a few seconds.

As the pod broke through the thick layers of atmosphere, it began a stripping procedure. Parts of the shell began to tear away, now that aerodynamics were becoming less important. Now she was simply a Titan descending through the atmosphere, preparing to land on the ground below. She spotted the marked point below her as the ground rushed up to meet her. With a massive crunch of the concrete beneath her feet, she absorbed the impact and looked up at the helmet of Gates.

"KT-0298, operational and ready."

Gates waved her forward. "Come on, it's this way." She began to run into the facility, with the Titan coming from behind.

"You're not going to believe this," explained Gates, "but it's really happening. We're gonna do it."

"To what are you referring?" questioned the Titan."

"We found him. We found Tobias. And we're rescuing him."

Gates could see something in that blue eye of hers, something she hadn't seen in a long time. Something threatened to break through KT's curt and uncaring demeanor. Threatened to crush the unemotional facade she'd placed around herself for the few years.

But it was held at bay.

"Retrieving Pilot Four would indeed be a welcome objective," agreed KT.

Gates shook her head sadly. The Titan herself didn't even realize how much she used to miss Four, not since she'd chosen to limit her emotional processors. Back then, Gates had approved of her choice; it had been obvious that the Titan was hurting too much to function without her other half.

But now, she acted similarly to a mindless Titan that had just come off the shelves, one without a strong bond with its Pilot. KT couldn't feel how close she and Four had once been.

" _Captain,"_ came Droz's voice, _"take a left. You'll have to head down a big hall, but you'll find a holding area or something at the back."_

"Copy that," she replied, "Gates out."

Together, she and KT ran past the bodies of IMC grunts that Cooper and BT had killed upon coming through here. Taking the left as Droz had advised, they were met with a steep inclination. Indeed, there seemed to be stations for guards and other personnel every so often; a good sign that they were protecting something that needed lots of security.

As they passed through the facility, she couldn't help but see several rooms with garage-like doors. Some of them had instruments of torture; knives, needles, chemicals that were likely meant to attack the nervous system. She shuddered, hesitant to imagine the horrors that they must have performed on Four for experimentation on the Inferno.

Finally, they came to an end. A large door that slid into the ceiling was locked in place, barring their entry. Red lights adorned the sides of the door, an indication that something had gone wrong. Hopefully, it was just noticing the lack of living personnel in the area, and not a lack of life within its walls.

"I can't get this door open KT, I need-"

She hadn't finished her sentence before the Titan had moved forward and placed one of her hands against the door to steady herself. Forming a fist with the other hand, she began to repeatedly slam it into the door.

 _WHAM._

The door dented where she'd hit it, and dust began to fall from the sides of the cell as the supports cracked.

 _WHAM._

The door was only able to withstand one more hit from the Titan before it made a loud crunching noise and fell forward, its link to the ceiling having been severed. Light shone in from the outside, illuminating the nearly pitch-black room and the single occupant inside.

Four.

He looked up, and noticed the Titan staring him in the face, as well as Gates next to her. She saw the smallest of sparks ignite in his eyes.

"Tobias," she breathed. He seemed to have a look of joy on his face for a brief moment, but it quickly darkened and he faced away from them.

KT crouched down, and leaned in to examine him. Gates ran to his side, and looked at his restraints. Both hands were pulled away from each other, locked in metal clamps that were hooked up with elastic cable to the edges of the ceiling. She tried to disable them, all while looking over his body.

He was naked save for a single bloodied garment around his waist and lower region. It allowed her to see the damage for herself; angry red scars crossed his body, gashes and still-healing wounds were layered over one another everywhere she could see. There was an especially nasty mark across his stomach. She was shocked to see that the hand she was trying to break out of the cuff, his left hand, was missing his ring and pinky fingers above the first knuckle; it appeared that they had been cut off.

"It appears that Pilot Four has been severely injured," stated KT matter-of-factly.

Gates glared at her and hissed, "Can't you show a bit more concern than that?! Dammit, you don't even realize do you?" Angered with this unfamiliar emotionless personality of KT's, she looked back to Tobias.

"Four, can you hear me? Tobias!" she spoke urgently, trying to get his attention. "We need to get out of here, there's not much time!"

He muttered something under his breath, something neither she nor KT could hear. "What?"

He looked up at them, his eyes narrowed and no longer with that spark of hope. "It's a trick, isn't it? This is just the latest trick you're all using on me, trying to get me to talk. I don't know what the hell kind of Titan that is," he spat, nodding his head toward the mech, "but there's no way that's Kay. No way…"

Gates groaned, realizing he didn't recognize KT's new chassis class. "We don't have time for this- KT, break the cuffs!"

Obliging, the Titan reached forward and snapped the metallic restraints into pieces. Tobias fell to the ground, and wasted no time in trying to fight who he thought was his captors. Fortunately, his strength had deteriorated over years of malnourishment and imprisonment, and Gates was easily able to catch his slow fist.

"Put him in, KT. There's no way he'll be able to keep up with us."

Though he still resisted and squirmed, the Titan picked him up and placed him in her hull. He fell silent, probably thinking that he was going remain silent if they tried to interrogate him.

" _Captain!"_ Bear's voice came through the comms, worried and loud.

"I'm here!" she called, waving to let KT know to follow her. The Titan obeyed, her footsteps echoing through the halls. Together, they ran as Bear tried to talk.

" _Cooper and BT are going to blow up the Ark! You need to get out; once that much energy's released, the whole planet could crack apart!"_

"Copy that, get that dropship over here and get the Malta clear of the atmosphere!" she yelled back.

Exiting the facility and making their way back to the cliff, Gates spied the growing shape of a Widow approaching them. Within seconds, it pulled up next to the cliff. Only a small jump was needed to ensure that both she and KT were once again in relative safety.

"Punch it!" she shouted at the pilot. He didn't respond, but she felt the g-force as the Widow sped up and away into the air.

Gates looked at KT, and then to her hull where Tobias resided inside. She sighed.

"Even if you don't believe it, Four… you're safe now. You're going home."

She shook her head. "I just hope that both you and KT can recover enough to mend the broken bond between the two of you."

* * *

 _ **A/N: And, we have arrived at the sequel to Inferno; Tempest.**_

 _ **As we can see, our main characters are a bit worse for wear at the start here; Tobias is stricken with PTSD and refuses to believe that he's really being rescued, while KT has let go of her former emotions in order to escape the pain of being without her Pilot; she literally cannot feel emotion like she used to until she stops suppressing those processors. How long will it take for them both to heal and regain that unshakable friendship between the two of them?**_

 _ **Let me know your thoughts in the reviews below, and don't forget to follow and favorite!**_

 _ **Until the next time,**_

 _ **\- Matteoarts**_


	2. Broken Bond

The Widow's side opened, allowing both Gates and KT to exit. The rest of the 6-4 had piloted the Malta a ways away, so their ship had returned to the main fleet, and landed aboard one of the frigates.

Others watched as the two made their way towards an open section of the hangar, and the Captain turned to the Titan. "Alright KT, pull him out."

Obliging, the Titan opened her hull and reached in to grab the still-silent Tobias. As soon as she set him on the ground, he made right for Gates.

Dodging his weak swing was easy enough, but she was also trying not to hurt him. "Four! Calm down, just listen-"

"It's not real, you're not FUCKING REAL!" He managed to get a lucky blow on her stomach. It still wasn't nearly enough to cause any harm to her, and she felt a pang of sadness for the sad physical shape he was in. "I won't let you hurt me anymore, I won't let you hurt THEM-"

On his next throw, Gates caught his arms and brought them close to her chest before gently forcing him onto his back on the ground. "Tobias, it's _me!_ I know you've been through a lot, but it's really us!"

He shut his eyes and looked away as though she were going to do something he couldn't bear to look at. She wasn't about to give up trying to get through to him.

"I was the one who saved you and KT on Nedar, I was here when you joined the Militia! I helped you on that raid on the Kraken, even after you nearly got yourself killed; I was the one who grieved when I thought you were dead on Erebus, and then had to relive it when you sacrificed yourself to let us escape!"

He shut his eyes tighter, but his resisting had stopped. He was listening to her now. It was new incentive for her to continue, and break through.

"I'm the one who just disobeyed orders to retrieve you, and I'm here talking to you now! Look!" She grabbed his hands and placed them flat against her chest, then her helmet so he could feel her. "It's really me, I'm right here! It's me!"

He opened his eyes as he shook from fear, and looked at her helmet where his hands were obviously meeting resistance. She could see that spark of hope light up again in his eyes.

"…Gates?" he whispered.

She grabbed his hand, and squeezed it comfortingly in her own. "Yes," she breathed back, "it's me. It's really me."

He stared at her for another moment before his eyes closed again, this time as tears came streaming down his cheeks as well. He reached around and grabbed her tightly as though she were a lifeline back to sanity. She hugged him back, and just held him as he cried into her shoulder. His pain had finally come to an end after so long, she couldn't blame him for reacting this way.

Others looked on in shock, confusion at what they'd just witnessed. Even KT, or rather the emotionless version of her, seemed indifferent to the spectacle. Gates didn't care; she had her friend back.

Suddenly, he went limp in her arms. She hurriedly checked him over, to make sure he was alright. He appeared to have fainted from stress.

She looked out at the bystanders watching. "We need a medic! Now!" Startling them with her abrupt change in demeanor, several riflemen hurried off to find someone who could help.

Gates looked back to him and muttered, "Don't worry, Tobias. I'm right here. We're all right here."

…

He opened his eyes.

Quickly he darted his gaze from the left side of the room to the right. He scanned for any threats, waiting to see who was coming in to torture him today-

Wait. He didn't recognize this place. If he didn't know better he'd say that…

It was an infirmary. Some kind of medical wing, probably one onboard a frigate. An IV was hooked into his arm, feeding him much-needed nutrients intravenously. Scores of bandages were covering his scarred body and wounds.

Which meant… it wasn't all just a dream. He'd really been rescued.

He jerked backwards in shock upon seeing a figure leaning on the side of his cot before realizing it was Gates. She looked up upon hearing his movement, and he heard a sigh of relief that he was awake.

He looked her over, noticing she was wearing her armor. In spite of it all, he gave a small snort. "All this time, and you still never take that damn helmet off."

She paused for a moment, but when she spoke again she sounded happy that there was a glimmer of his old self in his speech. "Just a matter of coincidence. I swear, I have a face under here."

"Honestly? What do you look like under there?"

She shrugged. "Pretty normal. See for yourself." She easily slid the helmet up and off of her head. Like she'd said, she was relatively normal looking. Short brown hair hung above her similarly colored eyes. She looked to be anywhere from her late-twenties to early-thirties. Aside from a scar or two on her chin, she didn't have a very unique face. She placed her helmet back on.

"Honestly, I just keep it on out of habit, and because it keeps everyone else out there guessing as well." She chuckled. "Gets 'em to make rumors, intimidates them a bit."

He nodded, and fell silent. They remained there for a few moments before she sighed. "We really need to stop meeting like this. What with you in the infirmary, and all."

He stared at her, unsure of what to say. Maybe a long time ago, he'd have come up with a witty quip; but he was running dry after all that time spent in imprisonment. Speaking of which…

"How long?" She looked at him, understanding his question and giving another tired sigh.

"Two years. Two years and three months, to be more precise. It's… it's been hard, without you. Though I imagine you had it worse," she confessed, gesturing towards his left hand.

He looked at the two missing fingers. "That happened pretty early on, before they decided that mutilation wasn't the best method for extracting information. Pretty much every beating and knife for the last year or so has been more for entertainment than anything else. Gave them something to vent their frustration on when I wouldn't cooperate."

He could see that it pained her to hear how nonchalant he was about it. Not much he could do about it, his mind had taken quite a toll over the years. There were worse things than a few missing fingers.

A thought struck him, and he began to panic a bit. "KT! Where's Kay? Is she alright? Is-"

Gates held up her hands to tone him down. "Slow down, I don't need one of the medics coming over and kicking me out for you getting too stressed."

He inhaled deeply, and exhaled until his breathing leveled out. Obviously, he was prone to bouts of panic. An unwelcome side-effect of PTSD, but it wasn't like he could change it.

She seemed to be hesitant of something, and he made sure to keep their gazes locked and make her tell him.

"After you were left behind… KT tried to continue without you, she really did. But with how strong a bond the two of you shared… she just couldn't function. Her judgment was clouded, her mind just wasn't what it used to be. You have no idea how many times I had to fight to keep her mind from being wiped." She shook her head at the depressing memory. "Eventually, she just couldn't take it any more. She decided to have her emotional processors suppressed. Usually, they help out an AI with keeping them attached to us, making them loyal in their bonds with us. But her emotional load was just too much to bear."

She pointed out the door, indirectly indicating KT. "Now, she's more like a machine than I've ever seen her. She just follows orders, unfeeling and uncaring. It's because of her example that our new Titans are all designed to be less emotionally reactive."

He narrowed his eyes. "New Titans?"

She nodded. "Apparently, the MCOR had been designing a new type of Titan chassis a few years back, right around the time you first joined up. They didn't become fully integrated with the general fleet until a few months after you were gone. They're called Vanguards, and they're pretty damn effective at their jobs. But the new AI's that control them… they don't have the same feeling as the old ones do. We see a few exceptions here or there, but for the most part they're pretty indifferent. It can be effective on a battlefield, but…"

He muttered, "And it's because of KT that they did that?"

Gates took a second to respond, but nodded reluctantly. "After they saw how broken up she was about your absence, they started thinking that they needed to change the way their minds work too, not just the chassis. That view was only encouraged when they saw how she became more functional after her emotions were suppressed."

He was silent for a moment, processing what he'd just been told. KT had dealt with being abandoned poorly, he'd broken his promise to her. She'd been hurting _so badly_ that she'd had to completely shut down her emotional processors.

How was he supposed to deal with that, knowing how much he'd hurt his best friend?

Gates could see the hurt on his face, and made a humming sound. "Maybe it'd be best for you to see her in person, rather than me telling you about her."

He looked at her with hope on his features. She stood up, and began to walk towards a door. "I'll get one of the medics to sign off on a short excursion around the ship for you."

…

A bit of time later, he was following Gates out to the Titan barracks. He was dressed in some warm white-colored garments that they had for mobile patients. They'd wanted him to drag around his IV stand with him, but they'd agreed to give him one of those quick-acting medical cocktails to give him enough energy for an hour or so before he had to return to his bed.

Gates entered first, looking around the massively proportioned quarters. He could see deactivated Titans hung up on the racks adorning the walls, while others walked freely around. He spotted several of the new chassises and what appeared to be something else on the shelves. "What's that?"

Gates looked at where he was pointing. "Those are part of the "Prime" project. We've been fitting some of the IMC models with some parts from our Vanguards. That there is what we call an Ion Prime, or at least what we'll call it if it ever works out."

He nodded, and they kept walking. Gates meandered into a specific area, and looked around. "KT? You in here?"

"Affirmative, Captain."

He tensed up at hearing her voice. He hadn't realized what a shocking sensation it was after so long without her. Still, there was something off about her voice. Like Gates said; it was as though her personality had just been sucked out of her.

The Titan stepped into view, and he looked her over for the first time in years. She had a new chassis, one of those Vanguard models. Her appearance was different from the standard grey and gold of the ones he'd seen; she was a dark faded blue, with white highlights and accents covering where the gold would usually be.

Her cylindrical head and eye rotated to see him standing behind Gates. "It is good to see you mobile, Pilot Four."

Gates stepped out of the way to allow him a clear line to her. He stepped forward hesitantly. "KT, do you… do you remember me?"

She blinked. "Of course. You are my Pilot. You were captured by IMC forces when you remained behind on Erebus to ensure the rest of the Militia's survival. Your actions were in accordance with Protocol two: uphold the mission. It has been 836 days since we were last together. My records indicate that you are a good friend."

This was worse than any pain the IMC had dealt him; seeing just how detached she was. "No, not like that… do you remember us? The bond we had? How close we were?"

She was silent for a moment. "My memory banks are operating at 100% capacity. I am aware of the former relationship we maintained. My calculations indicate that our combat effectiveness was heavily increased when together, but decreased when apart. With my current state, we are slightly less effective as a team but I am much more functional alone than before. Data banks say that my overall efficiency decreased exponentially after your capture until my decision to suppress unnecessary functions."

Unnecessary functions. That's all that this new mind of KT's considered their bond to be.

He could see now why she had refused his offer to keep a neutral bond when they'd first started out; this wasn't any kind of bond at all. Even Shears had at least some kind of connection with her; this just felt completely empty and devoid of feeling, of anything.

He swallowed hard, and looked away. "I… I see."

She blinked again. "Have I said something wrong, Pilot?"

He shook his head, perhaps a bit too vigorously. Gates could see that he was taking it pretty hard. "No, there's… there's nothing wrong. I'll see you later, Kay."

She nodded. "Understood, Pilot."

He turned and walked out of the barracks with Gates chasing after him. "Four? Tobias, slow down!"

He didn't stop until he was out of the barracks, and back into the general section of the ship. Gates walked around him, and faced him head-on. "I know that was probably a lot to take in, but I felt it was best to see exactly what I was talking about-"

He nodded. "I get it. I-" He couldn't think of words to say, and fell silent. After a moment or two, he made up a decision in his mind.

"Wipe her link with me."

Gates was silent in shock until she fully realized what he'd just said. " _…What?_ "

He looked at her. "I caused this to happen. I made her hurt this much, enough to… to completely suppress any emotions she may have had. What kind of Pilot, what kind of _friend_ am I?" He shook his head. "She deserves better, she deserves a better Pilot than me. I just- it would hurt too much to see her like that every day. I can't."

Gates said nothing as he walked past her, and slowly made his way back to the infirmary. His gait was one of a broken man; someone who had lost everything, or so they'd thought until they lost the last little bit of hope that they didn't even know they had.

* * *

 _ **A/N: I hope you all are on the edge of your seats.**_

 _ **On a sidetone, if you can't see the cover of the book/it shows up as my avatar, that's a problem with the site itself. I promise you, there is a cover to it but FF is messing up its systems right now, and it won't let the cover save. Hopefully it will be fixed soon.**_

 _ **Be sure to let me know your thoughts in the reviews below! And don't forget to follow and favorite.**_

 _ **Until the next time,**_

 _ **\- Matteoarts**_


	3. Reminiscence

Over the course of the next day, KT was quite confused as to why Pilot Four would not come to see her when she requested to meet with him. She had wanted to perform a diagnostic, and ensure that their link was undamaged. She was unaware of what side effects the Inferno (as well as being tortured for two years) would have on his mind and neural link.

Alas, he had denied her request. He explained that he was trying to recover, but that story did not align with his actions the previous night, when he had managed to come visit her. She was beginning to suspect that he was distancing himself from her, though she was unaware as to why.

So, she remained in the Titan barracks for the greater part of the day. It wasn't until mid-afternoon that something of interest actually came up.

"KT?"

The Titan turned to see Captain Gates walking towards her. She adjusted her stance so that she was completely facing the officer. "Hello, Captain. How may I be of assistance?"

Gates looked every which way to make certain that they weren't in earshot of any other Titans or personnel. "It's about Four."

KT nodded, glad that someone else had noticed. "His actions have been unusual as of late. They contradict previous behavior that was recorded as being standard before. I have been trying to meet with him today, however he has denied my requests to do so. It is unlike him."

Gates shook her head disappointedly. "You have no idea why, do you?"

She fell silent for a moment. Was the Captain aware of something she was not?

Admitting ignorance, she shook her head. "I cannot determine exactly why Pilot Four would act in this manner."

The Captain looked back into her optics, obviously in a state of both regret and resignation to an unfortunate situation. "He has requested for your link with him to be terminated."

The Titan had no reaction at first. Gates looked into that cracked blue eye of hers, and saw what she could only assume to be a surge of processing power as the Titan struggled to make sense of the information she'd just been told. These were the only moments where she could see a hint of the old KT in this chassis.

"I do not understand. What motivated this decision?"

Gates sighed. "You wouldn't understand, at least I don't think you would anymore. Maybe once you would have."

KT tilted her head. "Have I done something wrong? Did I prompt him to-"

The Captain waved her question aside. "No, you haven't. At least not directly. In fact, he's actually requesting it because he blames himself."

This just furthered KT's confusion. "What does he blame himself for?"

She gestured at the Titan. "For you. He blames himself for what happened to you."

"… Please elaborate."

Gates seemed tired, or maybe just drained. "Half a year after Four was captured, you suppressed your emotional processors because you were hurting too much to properly function."

KT nodded. "Correct."

Gates sat down on the edge of one of the lower storage shelves. "Well, he blames himself for that. You can see why he'd think that way, right?"

KT paused for a moment. "It was my decision to limit my emotional processors, not his. I don't see-"

Gates interrupted, "You're seeing it the way a Titan would assess the situation. Humans don't think the same way you do. In fact," she muttered, "it was you who actually made me realize that. But essentially, he sees himself as an indirect cause in the best case scenario. Worst case scenario, it's all his fault. If he hadn't gone missing, you wouldn't have been so depressed. Doesn't take a scientist to see the connection he's drawn. And I think that the best person to tell him that his assessment is wrong … is you."

KT hesitated to reply. "I see."

Gates threw her hands up frustratedly. "That's the thing, I don't actually think you do."

She stood back up, and began to pace around the room, trying to perform any kind of action as a calming technique. "You can't see it properly, because you literally don't have the ability to. Not anymore, at least. You can bring up records, and see for yourself how strong your bond was once, but you can't ever truly _feel_ just how connected you two were. You can't feel how much the two of you cared for one another."

KT pondered that information, and came to the conclusion that Gates had a point. "What would you advise me to do?"

The Captain held her hands up in neutral position. "This isn't about what I think you should do. This is about you and Four."

The Titan paused. "I am not trying to insinuate that you are giving me an order. But if you believe there to be a better solution than what Pilot Four has proposed, I would recommend that you elaborate."

Gates sensed that the she was being sincere, or as sincere as she could be. "Well … I'm not sure. Again, I'm not gonna tell you what to do. I just wanted to tell you what Four told me, and see your reaction. If you even cared about your bond anymore."

KT was taken aback. "Of course I'm concerned about the integrity of my link with-"

"Are you though? Do you think you should be more concerned about the link itself… or the person who shares that link?"

She stopped talking again, trying to assess the truth behind Gates' words.

The Captain sighed a final time, and began to walk out of the barracks. "Take a look through those records of yours. Compare the bond you had with the one you have now, and determine which one you'd rather have."

She made it to the exit before stopping and looking back at KT.

"One more thing, and keep this in mind; Four missed you, and was hurting just as bad as you were because of it. But unlike you, he can't just decide to turn off his emotions. He lived with that pain for two years, wondering if he'd ever see you again. And the first thing he finds out when he's rescued is that you gave up." She shook her head. "I know that sounds harsh, but … well."

With that, she walked out.

KT was left alone with nothing but her thoughts and calculations. She ran an analysis on how effective a team she and Pilot Four could be with the current state of mind he was in. The numbers were not particularly impressive.

She thought about what Gates had said. Perhaps the best course of action was to find a different paradigm to view the situation from; obviously, numbers and statistics were not high on Gates' list of priorities. Unfortunately, without her emotional processors, she couldn't exactly relate to the feelings of either her past iteration or Pilot Four.

So she opted to let history tell the story for her. She brought up records, videos and archives of their previous interactions. The way they talked around each other, how they seemed to feel when around each other.

And what she found surprised her.

…

He jerked awake, immediately darting his gaze from corner to corner in the room. He was about to raise a fist before he realized where he was, and relaxed a bit. He was definitely going to have to get used to this nightmarish terror he experienced every time he woke up.

Something had woken him up, but he had no idea what. Was there someone else in the infirmary? It was getting late, but there were more than likely personnel still walking around-

 _Pilot Four._

His head snapped to the other side of the room, looking for an intruder. He began to search the shadows for whoever was talking to him. He couldn't help being a bit on edge, even if he was supposedly safe-

 _Four, I need to speak with you._

He realized who was talking. "KT?"

 _Yes._

He sighed. She was using their neural link, and … well, he hadn't heard her voice in his head for a long time. It was a disconcerting sensation, to say the least.

"What is it?"

 _I require your presence in the third hangar bay. It is mostly unoccupied._

He grimaced. He hated to reject her, but if he was serious about cutting ties with her because she deserved better … then he needed to start showing it.

"I can't. The doctors have me hooked up, and I'm not supposed to-"

 _History shows that you have a tendency to disobey orders. I doubt that this situation is too different from another you experienced several years ago._

In spite of it all, he felt an upward tug at the corners of his lips. There was a hint of the old KT in that dialogue.

"Why do you need me?"

 _It would be preferable to speak with you about it in person._

"KT, I-"

 _I understand your reluctance. But … this is important to me._

It definitely sounded like it. He weighed his options, deciding what exactly was the best course of action to take here. He looked at the IV attached to the tube and needle in his arm.

"Ah, fuck it."

He popped the needle out easily enough, and set it on the bedside table next to him. The pain didn't bother him, not like it once would have. Maybe his nerves had just gotten used to it to the point where it didn't affect him as much anymore.

"I'm coming."

 _Thank you._

…

He entered into the third hangar through the halls that connected each section of the ship together. He looked around, noticing that KT was right; almost nobody was here. Just a person or two at the edges of the room, who didn't seem to care enough to pay attention to him or the Titan standing in the center, in between the main areas on either side of the shield doors.

"Pilot," KT greeted. He sighed, noticing once again the odd formality she now expressed with him.

"Hey, KT."

She looked quizzically at him. "You have refrained from referring to me as 'Kay' for the last day, now. You've used my proper designation in every instance we speak."

He winced, realizing that she'd caught onto that. Then he shrugged, as much as it pained him to speak so professionally with her.

"Well, you keep calling me 'Pilot Four'. Figured that you wanted it that way."

She was silent, processing his words. Then she crouched down to his level.

"Captain Gates informed me of your decision to terminate our link."

Dammit.

He exhaled deeply. "Look, KT … I'm sorry, but-"

"She also advised me to ponder on to what extent I would go to keep our link."

That was a new one. He waited for her to finish.

She hesitated for a moment, choosing her next words. "I searched through recordings and data about our earlier relationship and interactions. I compared them with the likely condition of our connection if I were to maintain my current state."

The rotating optic on her shoulder suddenly illuminated, and projected a 3D hologram onto the ground. He was taken aback for a moment, before analyzing the recording more closely and recognizing the subjects.

" _You said that Titans need an emotional connection with their pilot, someone they can relate and bond with."_

He watched the holographic version of him as he'd looked three years ago talking with an unseen Gates and Dimitri as a holographic version of KT stood and watched him incredulously. The holo-version of him looked up at KT's analogous copy.

" _I'd like to volunteer to be her Pilot. I think that we would make a good team."_

The projection only remained for another second or two before it flickered out of existence and was replaced with another hologram.

" _You're unusual."_

He knew it as the time when KT had seen him people-watching, just after she'd finished being repaired on that day he'd joined the Militia.

" _In what way?"_

" _Why would you risk your already tenuous position with the Militia to keep me from being decommissioned? I've known Pilots to be partial to risks and danger, but you seem to have an obsession."_

" _It was just the right thing to do, KT. Not to mention that you're just about the only friend I've got here."_

Watching it again years later, he could noticed the stiffness that KT's old Ion chassis took on when he said that. He now knew it was because she'd never been called anyone's friend before he came into her life.

This recording also faded out and was replaced with yet another.

" _I decided that I would continue to monitor our interactions, the way we fight together, talk together. And I realized that I consider you my friend as well. I am worried."_

" _About what?"_

"… _I had a momentary fear that you would abandon me and return to the IMC if you believed they had a better chance at winning with the possibility of a new power to beat the Militia."_

" _You're afraid of me leaving you?"_

Even now, the memory of this particular conversation caused his throat to tighten, a lump forming from the nature of the moment they'd shared so long ago.

" _I understand that this is not the case, but I could not help it. You are my only … friend … here as well, and I do not want to lose you."_

" _Kay, I'm not going anywhere. There's no way I'm ditching you, believe me."_

He shut his eyes, knowing what was coming next.

" _I never break a promise. So when I say that I promise to never abandon you, and that we're gonna be together for quite awhile, you can bet that I mean it."_

The recording mercifully flickered out. A new one filled its place.

" _C'mere, I got something to show you."_

" _Why are you not in armor?"_

" _Got it here in my hands. Part of what I wanted to show you."_

He watched at the holo-him geared up in the new blue and white Militia garb he'd requested, keeping only his old white helmet before turning to the holo-KT.

" _What do you think?"_

" _It suits you. But I am confused; would your old armor not give you better protection?"_

" _No, you're right. It would protect me better. But it would also separate us."_

" _I do not understand."_

He remembered how big of a decision it had been for him to completely abandon his old life and embrace the new one with KT, making sure they were connected as best as he could hope.

" _I'm your Pilot. You are my Titan. And knowing what I do about your fears of me abandoning you … I wanted to show you that I'm one of you now. We're a team, you and I."_

" _And you're doing this for me?"_

" _Yeah."_

"… _Thank you."_

He wasn't sure exactly what KT was trying to accomplish by showing him all these old recordings, but he was definitely hurting now. Seeing them growing closer all that time ago… it was enough to make a few tears well up.

"… _If you need a more neutral partnership, just let me know-"_

" _That is the last thing I want."_

He saw KT watching herself, analyzing how the previous iteration of her was so against the thought of a neutral link- the kind of link that they had now.

" _I choose not to because I value our friendship far too much to sacrifice it. Yes, it means that I hurt more when you are hurt; it also means that I am happier when I'm with you, that we have a stronger bond than other Titans and Pilots do."_

"… _You really feel that way?"_

" _Yes. You and I … we are friends, Tobias. And I want it that way."_

He watched as the holo-him beckoned the holo-KT to bend down, and then proceeded to pat the top of her eye affectionately.

" _I want it that way too, Kay."_

A new recording appeared, but this one wasn't a hologram. It was a camera recording of the interior of KT's hull. It appeared to be after they'd fallen off the cliff on Erebus.

"… _Though it may not make me a good Titan … I hope that it makes me a good friend."_

" _Kay … you are and always will be my friend. My best friend."_

" _You are my best friend too, Tobias. You also gave me a new purpose. You made me realize that I'm not just a machine; you made me understand that I can be a friend, that I can form relationships … that I'm a person. Thank you."_

The video recording swapped to another video instead of a hologram. This time, it was from the first person perspective of KT as she looked into the massive IMC facility on Erebus, where he'd stayed behind to shut down the guns. He heard his voice speaking to her through the radio.

" _You told me that you were a lousy Titan, but a good friend. I'm sorry that I'm an awful friend … but apparently I make a good Titan."_

Those tears that had welled up earlier now came cascading down his cheeks as he recalled the final conversation he'd had with KT before his capture. The version of him on the recording sounded like he was trying not to cry too.

" _Kay, you're the best damn friend I could have asked for. You're more than a friend, you're …"_

" _I feel the same, Tobias. You're everything to me."_

"… _Don't hold yourself back for me. Get yourself a new pilot, a better pilot. Don't let yourself go to waste while I'm gone, that's the last thing I'd want."_

Video-KT turned to board a Widow, and then looked out at the facility again as the ship began to rise in altitude.

" _I refuse. This isn't the end, Tobias. We will find you, no matter how long it takes."_

"… _I'll miss you, KT."_

"… _Tobias, I … I lo-"_

Without warning, the recording faded to static as their link had evidently fallen out of range, and she'd found no reason to continue recording. He sniffed a bit, and wiped his eyes so that KT wouldn't see. "There, you see? My last order was for you to find a new Pilot. Everything's in order."

KT looked at him, the blue light disappearing from her optic on her shoulder. "I disagree."

He waited to hear what she had to say before adding any thoughts of his own.

She waved her hand at the spot where the holograms had just played a few seconds before. "As evidenced by the recordings many times, you and I considered ourselves to be inseparable."

He nodded sadly. "Yeah, and that's why you had so many issues when I was taken from you for so long. I'm so sorry that I put you through that-"

"There is no need for you to apologize, Pilot Four. Rather, I am of the opinion that it is I who must express my apologies."

He was taken aback. What was this?

KT's optics remained focused on him, unblinking and static like the almost artificial personality she now possessed. "My previous iteration was of the opinion that you had abandoned me when in reality, you were performing protocol two to the best of your ability. Without any other solution to my grieving, I ceased the functions of my emotional processors. I never fully understood that this was the most detrimental influence to our bond."

He blinked. "What?"

"As pointed out to me by Captain Gates, you are unable to stop yourself from feeling like I can. So you endured two years of imprisonment alone and in emotional duress while I- from a certain perspective- enjoyed a relatively less painful existence by silencing my emotions. However, my actions can be seen to be almost the same as throwing away the bond we shared in favor of an easier time. Most would call that selfish."

He shook his head. "No, no it was the only thing you could-"

"It _was_ selfish."

He fell silent, not yet used to this bold version of KT that had the ability to question her own actions in such a logistic way. "Analyzing my thoughts and feelings at the time of the suppression reveals that the benefit was intended to be my own. Therefore, it was selfish."

She looked at him curiously. "Repeatedly, you had shown yourself to be dependable to our link. Whether it was protecting me, comforting me, or even saving my data core from being buried at the risk of your own life, you always took the measures that would keep me safest. So it is logical to assume that despite how much pain I initially felt at your capture, you allowed it to happen with my best interests in your mind."

Now, he was more intrigued than anything. He wanted to know where exactly she was going with this. She seemed a bit hesitant to continue.

"I would not trust an incomplete program to fulfill its job. And without my emotional processors, I consider myself to be incomplete. I trust my former iteration's judgement more than my own." She looked away for a moment, obviously analyzing how best to proceed. "And my former self claimed that the last thing I wanted was a neutral link with you. Evidently, we had a much stronger bond when I could feel than now, when I can't. Apparently everyone can see it based on the way we cared for each other back then … except for me."

He furrowed his brow. "What are you saying?"

She looked back at him. "My former iteration would have valued our link and bond more than anything else. Though I cannot validate those feelings in my current state, I can follow what I, assumedly, would have wanted myself to do once you were rescued."

He raised an eyebrow as she evaded the question. "And that is?"

She blinked. "Not many Titans, once they have done what I have done, choose to revert their decision. It is known to cause tremendous stress upon our minds, sometimes overloading us and potentially corrupting our datas cores. However, you are of the opinion that the best course of action for me, as I am, is to wipe my link with you."

"So what are you _doing?"_

She paused. "If I once valued the link so highly, I can only guess that your decision to wipe it is based off of the condition that I'm in now. And I cannot allow the link to be destroyed if I am to follow my former self's intrinsic orders. So there is only one solution."

He began to become increasingly cautious and wary of the way she was speaking. She was continually vague, and refusing to directly answer his questions. "And that would be?"

"I must reboot my core emotional processors. Calculations indicate that there is a 43% chance of success. If I succeed, then I will have followed my previous wishes as well as maintaining my link with you and reverting back to how I once was. If the procedure fails, then your link will be wiped regardless and I will have failed doing what both you and my previous iteration would have wanted."

He held his hands up, trying to stop her. Obviously, this 'reboot' was more risky than she was letting on. "Whoa, hey! You don't need to do this! Really, it's okay; I changed my mind-"

"Voice analysis indicates that you are simply trying to stop me out of fear of possible failure of the procedure." Her eye flickered for a moment as she processed something. "Overriding, and proceeding with the reboot. I hope to see you again soon, Pilot Four."

"Wait, KT-!"

Her body suddenly seized up, vibrating ever so slightly. The blue of her cracked optic flickered on and off rapidly as her systems tried to compensate for the massive rush of information that she was experiencing.

Suddenly, she pitched onto the floor, her chassis having a slight fit until it finally ceased all actions and lay unmoving on the ground.

" _KT!"_

He looked her over, trying to find some way to help. Her optics were completely shut down, but whether it was because they were recuperating or they were damaged beyond repair, he had no idea.

"Help!" He called out around him to the mostly empty hangar. The few people stationed around finally took notice of him, and looked at the odd sight of the infirmary patient attempting to assist a fallen Titan.

" _I need help! Please! Help her!"_

* * *

 _ **A/N: It is 3:15 in the damn morning where I'm at. I have been sitting here writing for hours because I felt a need to get this one out to you guys as yet another christmas present. This chapter is over a whopping 4,000 words, which definitely beats my average of about 2,500 per chapter.**_

 _ **In return, all I ask is that you guys enjoy yourselves as you read it, and please write a review. You have no idea how much it motivates me to get a new chapter when I see you guys in the review section.**_

 _ **And I SWEAR, it's gonna get better! Three somewhat depressing chapters in a row was probably not the easiest way to start off this new story, but it's necessary for where I plan to take it.**_

 _ **As always, don't forget to follow and favorite. Until the next time,**_

 _ **\- Matteoarts**_


	4. Reconciliation

…

…

…

… main_systems rebooting {DESIG. KILO_TANGO - 0298} last_activation (35:11.21 min ago)

WARNING [IMPROPER SHUTDOWN]

/ATTEMPT 1 REBOOT/

[STATUS: IN PROGRESS]

[STATUS: IN PROGRESS]

[STATUS: SUCCESSFUL]

/PERFORM ALL_SYS SCAN/

[ANALYSIS: all primary systems and critical functions are functioning ~ emotive processors have been reset and added to main_systems]

/RUN DIAGNOSTIC/

[ANALYSIS: cause of shutdown originated from data core ~ momentarily overloaded from addition of emotive processors to active systems}

/PERFORM DATA_CORE SCAN/

[ANALYSIS: data core is functioning (corrupt?.no) data core is not corrupted and/or damaged]

PROT. 1 {SUCCESS}

PROT. 2 {SUCCESS}

PROT. 3 {IN PROGRESS}

/ … /

/ … Oh God. /

…

Tobias sighed, and leaned against KT's chassis which was now lying immobile in the Titan barracks.

He had gotten some help from the few people out in the hangar at this hour. Someone had grabbed a transport cart, and wheeled her in here. They said that they'd get an engineer to look her over when morning came, but there wasn't anything to be done at the moment. He'd thanked them, and opted to hang back with her while they left.

"Why?"

He couldn't really think of a better way to say that. He'd held onto the hope that he would one day reunite with his best friend, only to find that she didn't exist anymore. And now, the only remnant of her may have just gone and gotten herself corrupted or worse. It's like he was taking a beating every day, having his hope ripped away from him with every time he thought he had some.

He reached out, and patted the arm of the inactive Titan. This chassis was totally unfamiliar to him. Considering who it belonged to, he couldn't help but wish that the KT wasn't as big a stranger to him as it was.

Deciding to wait it out until morning, he reluctantly stood up and began to move towards the exit. He had only made it a few steps before he heard movement behind him, and spun around wildly to see that the chassis had jerked violently for a moment, as though someone were waking up from a nightmare.

As he watched, her optic blinked several times, the blue light flickering from within. Eventually it stabilized, and remained on as it rotated around, trying to analyze her surroundings.

He let out a breath of relief and walked back to her. "Glad to see you're still functioning. God, you had me worried for a second there."

Her optic moved towards his voice, and froze when he landed in her line of sight. He waved weakly. "Your whole system shut down because of what you tried. Looks like it didn't work, but I appreciate the effort anyway. But don't do it again, alright? I don't think it'd be wise to put so much strain on your systems."

He spoke dejectedly, and he knew it; but he didn't care. Of course he was glad that this shell of KT was still working, but that didn't mean that the old KT was back, nor would she likely ever be back. He turned to leave, and he couldn't help but think of how much it killed him to see her like-

"… Tobias?"

He half turned when he heard her say his name. "Yeah? What's-"

Suddenly, he realized that she'd just used his first name. Slowly, he rotated his body all the way around until he was facing her too. They stood there, gazes locked with each other as each realized what she'd just said.

He had no response other than his mouth opening slightly in shock. KT sat up from her lying position, and moved her arms in front of her optics where she could see them. She flexed her metallic fingers in front of her, and then looked back at him.

Slowly, he closed his mouth and swallowed hard. "… Kay?"

Upon hearing him say her name, she made a noise much like a whimper, and let her eye dart around the room as she shifted her body to move her legs over the side and sit properly. "Analyzing memory banks-"

She stopped as everything came flooding back to her once her systems finally finished their processing. Shakily, she looked down at the ground and did not move.

He didn't really know what to do until she looked at him again. The lens cap of her optic closed ever so slightly, making it look much like a person whose eyes were squinting as they cried. "I … I can't believe-"

She didn't finish her sentence as he moved forward and threw his arms around her as best as he could, what with her being so much bigger than him. She gently reciprocated the action, pulling him closer as she embraced him warmly.

He was in utter shock, and didn't register the wet sensation of tears falling from his eyes as he held her. Without warning, she let go and began to shudder. She said nothing, but turned away in shame. He moved himself back in front of her. "What's wrong?"

She spoke with a voice that matched her behavior; saddened, tearful, and broken. "I … I'm so sorry …" It was hard to make out what she was saying through the crying-like shudders that interrupted her as she spoke.

He shook his head. "Don't be, please don't-"

She raised her head to meet his gaze. "I lost hope for you. I was too weak to keep my promise to you, that I wouldn't give up-" She stopped as she saw him fully in the new light of her reawakened perspective. "Oh my God, your fingers?! And I knew your injuries were severe, but-"

She seemed absolutely floored at how damaged he was since she'd last seen him. She looked away again, shameful once more. "How did you … manage to go through that alone? I can't … I can't believe that such awful things happened to you … and I sacrificed our link for my own selfish-"

" _Stop!"_

She fell silent as she focused back on him. He took a deep breath, trying to stop his own onslaught of feelings from overwhelming him.

"You w-wouldn't have had to give up your emotional p-processors if I hadn't abandoned y-you. So, it's m-my fault-"

"No," she interrupted. "You were just trying to complete the mission. I was the one who said that we'd find you no matter how long it would take, yet I shut down my emotive processors before we ever-"

He raised his voice, "Yeah, but … we function differently! For all I know, humans are better equipped for separation than Titans are! You once compared having a Pilot to having a second half-"

"That's no excuse!" she snapped back. "I was the one who broke my promise!"

"Well what about me?! I told you I'd never abandon you, yet here we are two years later!"

"You did it for a good cause, my intentions were only selfish! If you were suffering as badly as I was, then it was only fair for me to endure as well-"

"You think I would want that?!" he shouted. "You think that I-I'd want you to go through the hell I did? Do you think so little of me?! God, I love you too much to ever want you to experience that!"

His chest heaved with adrenaline, and he waited for a response that didn't come. Instead, she just stared blankly at him and he tilted his head in confusion. "What?"

Her blue eye did not move from him. "What did you say?"

He played back the moment in his head, and suddenly realized what he'd said. They stared at each other in shock, at a loss for how to proceed.

Finally, he gave a small cough. "Well … I mean, you never had a chance to finish it back on Erebus, so … at least one of us had to say it, right?"

They were only still for a moment longer before they each moved towards each other simultaneously. They embraced once more, her having to lean down a bit to match his height.

"I love you too, Tobias," she muttered. "I missed you so much …"

He shut his eyes tight, enjoying this blend of regret and joy that he was feeling. "I missed you too, Kay. More than anything."

He took a step back, and reached his hand forward to the cylindrical head of her Vanguard chassis. He ran his hand along it affectionately as he greeted his old friend again. She looked back at him with her blue eye, and he saw once more the crack in its protective lens, a lens that apparently never been replaced. He looked at his left hand, now missing two fingers, and sighed.

"Look …" He focused back on her, and saw that she was listening attentively. "Both of us want to blame ourselves for what happened. The fact of the matter is that we both did the best with the hand we were dealt. We both failed to protect one another at different times." He held his hand up so she could see it, and then gestured at her broken lens cover; the main two reminders of their shortcomings.

"But that doesn't matter anymore, Kay. What matters is that _I'm_ here. _You're_ here. _We're_ here. Sure, we might slip up again from time to time, no friendship is without its bumps … but now, we'll always be there to support the other when we do." He smiled at her, and she blinked in response.

"You always know what to say to make a girl feel better, don't you?"

He chuckled. "Well, at least one girl in particular."

He hopped up onto the cart she was sitting on, and they sat together for the next few hours, deservedly enjoying each other's company for the first time in a long while.

* * *

 _ **A/N: YOU! Yes, you! Stop right there, and read this please. Short chapter, I know, but this is important.**_

 _ **I'm sure that some of you are already going either "OH MY GOD YES THE SHIP HAS COME TRUE" or "WHY DOES THIS SHIP EXIST THIS IS JUST WEIRD" (or maybe both, idc), but please wait for me to explain before you continue on.**_

 _ **Yes, they admitted to each other that they love one another. HOWEVER, it is not a necessarily romantic love. I mean, you love your friends and your family, right? But not in the same way that you love your significant other.**_

 _ **I suppose that my point is that there are several types of love. And the kind that they have may be romantic, it may not be … but I probably won't ever know.**_

 _ **Too many of you are asking for Tobias x KT ships, and too many of you are asking for Tobias x Gates ships for me to ever please all of you with an either/or situation. Now, I've said before that I will write not for what the readers want, but for what is best for the story in the long run. While this is true, I definitely do not want to turn people away/displease readers, and so I've settled (in my mind) for a compromise.**_

 _ **I have tried (and will continue to try) to keep it ambiguous. Interpret their relationship (as well the relationship between Tobias and Gates) however you see fit. The fact of the matter is that I don't even know myself whether or not they have those kinds of feelings for one another. All I know is that they share some kind of love for one another, just not what kind it is. If you think they are romantic, then read the story that way. If you think that they are just friends, then read it that way as well. But I don't think I'm ever going to blatantly state the nature of their relationship.**_

 _ **This isn't to say that I don't enjoy your comments about who should be together, feel free to keep writing those; I'm just saying that I don't want to mislead any of you. Thank you all for understanding.**_

 _ **On another note, thank you to the guest that said they hoped I was healthy; I actually am pretty sick at the moment, which is why I had to take some time between chapters to write this. I'm gonna keep trying to push out chapters regardless, but thanks for the kind wishes!**_

 _ **As always, please review, follow and favorite! I love reading your reviews, they always encourage me to write more!**_

 _ **Until the next time,**_

 _ **\- Matteoarts**_


	5. Mirage

_**The time has come.**_

Tobias looked around at the abstract black and red landscape that surrounded him. "What?"

 _ **The time has come.**_

"But …" He struggled to comprehend. "We destroyed the Ark weapon! The time came, and we prevailed! I've been rescued, the IMC have been beaten down, Harmony and the other world of the frontier are safe! I thought it was finished?"

 _ **No. Remember your dreams, your visions. The gifts I have fed you for the past year.**_

He shut his eyes, and watched flickers of different places and scenes flash through his mind.

 _A vast ocean._

 _Rock and ice._

 _Massive storms, stretching over miles upon miles of tundra._

 _He was running, and he jumped but fell short-_

" _Tobias!"_

" _KT!"_

He felt ice spread through him, coating his insides with frost. He crumpled to the ground, crying out in pain.

 _ **You are so much more important than you think. You are destined for so much more …**_

 _A machine._

 _A cavern._

 _ **Find them. Follow your visions, and find the answers you seek. There is much more at play than you know of …**_

The void swirled around him, obscuring his vision until the mysterious voice was but a faint noise in the wind-

And then he woke up.

* * *

 _ **A/N: My health has forced me to take a break.**_


	6. Convalesce

_**The time has come.**_

Tobias looked around at the abstract black and red landscape that surrounded him. "What?"

 _ **The time has come.**_

"But …" He struggled to comprehend. "We destroyed the Ark weapon! The time came, and we prevailed! I've been rescued, the IMC have been beaten down, Harmony and the other world of the frontier are safe! I thought it was finished?"

 _ **No. Remember your dreams, your visions. The gifts I have fed you for the past year.**_

He shut his eyes, and watched flickers of different places and scenes flash through his mind.

 _A vast ocean._

 _Rock and ice._

 _Massive storms, stretching over miles upon miles of tundra._

 _He was running, and he jumped but fell short-_

" _Tobias!"_

" _KT!"_

He felt ice spread through him, coating his insides with frost. He crumpled to the ground, crying out in pain.

 _ **You are so much more important than you think. You are destined for so much more …**_

 _A machine._

 _A cavern._

 _ **Find them. Follow your visions, and find the answers you seek. There is much more at play than you know of …**_

The void swirled around him, obscuring his vision until the mysterious voice was but a faint noise in the wind-

And then he woke up.

His eyes quickly scanned around for cues to his environment. He wasn't in the black and red void anymore, it had vanished as soon as the voice had delivered its advice. But then, where was he?

" _Tobias? Are you alright?"_

With a start, he realized that this was the interior of KT's Vanguard hull. Not much different from the other chassises he'd seen, though it was the slightest bit smaller.

"Yeah, I'm … I'm fine."

" _Your heart rate is alarmingly high. Were you having a nightmare?"_

Her voice had that familiar blend of concern and a soothing tone that he hadn't heard in so long. It felt great to hear it now. "Yeah, you could say that." He looked at himself to see that he was still dressed in the infirmary garment that he'd been dressed in last night. "So how'd I get in here?"

" _You fell asleep last night after our … talk."_ That was one way to describe their conversation lightly, and he could tell that she felt the same from the way she paused before finishing. _"I placed you inside, figuring that the seat may be more comfortable than the ground."_

He nodded gratefully. "Well, you'd be right. Thanks for that."

With a hiss of hair, the hatch opened and allowed him to exit. Carefully, he stepped down to the hard metal floor. The door closed, and KT stood back up to her proper height. "What was it about?"

He could tell that she was worried about the dreams contents. He waved her concerns away with a hand. "Nothing like that. It was one of many dreams I've been having over the last few months."

Her head tilted, expressing her curiosity. He furrowed his brow slightly, thinking about what the voice had said.

"It has to do with me being the Inferno, it's still in my head. It's odd … I used to be able to access any information I wanted, it was like finding my way through a maze with a torch to light my way. It wasn't easy, but it was doable. But now, everything's just dark. I can't see it, but I know it's there." He looked up at the Titan. "Does that make any sense?"

She nodded. "More than you know. What are these dreams about? Any idea?"

He focused on each one he could remember. "They started with the voice I heard before, the previous Inferno, telling me that something was going to happen. Something big. I thought it just had to do wth the Ark and you all stopping it, but … it returned last night. Said that I was 'destined for more', or something along those lines. That there's much more at play than we previously thought."

He glanced up upon hearing a synthetic sigh from KT. She looked at him with something like playful resignation in her eye. "You can't make it five minutes without stumbling into some kind of trouble, can you?"

He shrugged, a similar look upon his own face. "Take it up with whatever cosmic force is giving us such shitty luck."

She chuckled. "Noted. Let's get you back to the infirmary and tell Gates what's going on."

…

The two of them were nearly across the hangar when the doors to the passage that led to the infirmary slid open and revealed a familiar figure. "Bloody hell, where have you been?"

He gave Gates a mock salute. "Nice to see you too."

She looked between him to the Titan standing next to him. "Ah. So she had a 'chat' with you, huh?"

"In a manner of speaking," he replied happily. KT waved at the captain.

"Hello, Gates."

Gates nodded. "Hey-" She froze, much like Tobias had when KT had called him by name. "Wait … KT? Like-"

KT nodded. "It's me- the _true_ me, I should say."

The captain seemed flabbergasted. "How-? I mean … when-?"

"Last night, I- my other self reflected on what you said. On how far the real me would go to keep the bond that I have with Tobias." She looked down at her pilot warmly. "I guess we know the answer now."

He patted her leg, then turned back to Gates. She titled her head slightly, then raised her hand to cut him off before he could speak. "Stop, just … stop."

He raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What?"

She shook her head. "I know that look of yours. That's the 'danger' look. Every time you come up with some ludicrous plan, it's on your face."

He was about to rebuke that, but then shrugged as he realized that she'd pretty much hit the nail on the head.

She sighed. "Alright, lay it on me."

"I've been having these nightmares, these visions for a few months," he explained. "The Inferno in my head … it's still there, but fainter. Like something's affecting it. It's been telling me that there's more at stake here than we believed. I thought that it was just talking about the Ark, but … now I'm not so sure."

Gates sighed. "And why didn't you mention this over the last week?"

"Like I said; I thought it was over," he apologized, "I still don't even know whether or not this warrants any concern or worry. I just thought that I should tell you, considering how my previous intuitions turned out."

She hesitated for a moment. "I believe that, more than likely, this _does_ hold quite a bit of weight. You were right about Erebus, your plans always worked out in the end, no matter how foolhardy they seemed at first," she huffed under her breath. "If it wasn't for you, we'd have never known about the Ark, about Typhon, and we wouldn't have discovered the fold weapon or been able to stop it. Harmony is only around because of our effort, but we wouldn't have made it if you hadn't warned us."

He was a bit taken aback, he hadn't realized that she held him in such esteem like she did now.

"I'm sure that if you brought this up with any of the heads of the Militia, they'd grant your request to investigate further; they practically owe you everything." She sighed. "That said, I am going to have to deny you a meeting to ask them."

He raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What? But-"

She held her hand up to stop them. "It's just for now. I mean, for starters you're still technically supposed to be healing," she pointed out, gesturing at his infirmary garments. "Not to mention that you've got to undergo several psych evaluations, physical tests, and more. It's been over two years since you last piloted a Titan, let alone held a weapon. You'll need to adapt with your left hand in the shape it is."

He looked at the nubs of his missing fingers, registering for the first time that he'd have to relearn how to balance the underside of a rifle with only two fingers and a thumb.

Gates crossed her arms. "You've been through hell and back; at least make sure you're healthy before you try to go looking for round two."

He wanted to argue, but he knew deep down that she was right. He wasn't ready for anything yet other than jumping the gun. Any kind of action would have to wait until he could be sure that he wasn't a liability out in the field.

He looked up, and met her gaze with resignation on his features. "So healing, psych evals, physical tests, training to pilot a Titan and hold a gun again … then I can ask again?"

She nodded, chuckling. "Then you can ask again. In the meantime, I'll let Briggs know you're alive. I've been putting off telling her since … well, since technically I had direct orders not to rescue you." She winced. "Sorry."

He raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, thanks for telling me that."

She lowered her head awkwardly, and then pointed towards the bridge. "I'm just gonna leave, and trust that you can make it to the infirmary on your own." With that, she spun and began to walk away. Suddenly, she stopped and came back. "Hold on, I forgot something."

He cocked his head, wondering what she was referring to.

She pulled something out of her belt pouches, and fidgeted with it in her hands. "I never really had to chance to ask, or even offer it to you before you were captured. Things were moving fast, and it hadn't crossed my mind because I … well, I already considered you to be one of us. God knows we worked with each other often enough for it. But we were always technically part of different divisions, and I didn't realize it until later. So …"

"… So?" he questioned, raising an eyebrow.

She held out her hand to him, with a single object in the center of it. "Well, I thought that maybe we should just make it official is all."

In her palm was a triangular patch, one that could be pocketed or applied to armor. It had the logo of the 6-4 on it, a design of green and orange. Lightning bolts of contrasting white and black stood behind a large six and backwards four, signifying their might.

"I've always said that the 6-4 isn't just a team, we're a family. And … well, you've more than earned a place among us." She sounded like she was smiling behind that helmet of hers.

Tentatively, he reached out and grabbed it. He held it in his own hands, at a loss for words momentarily. When he finally found them again, he looked up at her. "I … I'm honored."

She beamed at him, and then reached out to hug him. "I can't express enough how great it is to have you back, Four. Welcome home."

Stepping back, she gave him a small salute with two fingers, mirroring his own action that he'd done to her several times in the past. "Make sure you get well soon, so that you can ask about that request of yours." With nothing else to say, she finally walked back towards the bridge.

He looked at the patch in his hands, a symbol that he was truly part of them. He hadn't always felt welcome, having started out as a deserter of the IMC. But she'd just given him proof that he was one of them, that he was family. Though it hadn't been necessary, it meant the world to him.

He looked up at KT. "First I've got you back, and now this? Today just keeps getting better."

She nodded. "Make sure that it stays that way by heading in and resting up. The faster you're well, the faster we can explore this idea of yours."

"Sounds like a plan."

Slowly, it seemed like his life was beginning to pull itself back together.

* * *

 _ **A/N: Hello, everyone.**_

 _ **In any matter, I'm back. I may have to increase the length between updates purely to cut down on both physical and mental stress. I apologize for this, but I'd rather not have a repeat of what happened, especially when throwing school and my job into the mix.**_

 _ **I'm not extremely proud of this chapter; I don't know why, but it just feels rushed to me. Maybe you guys will notice it to, or maybe you won't. In any case, I can't see any way to make it better at the moment, so this is how I'm giving it to you guys.**_

 _ **Remember to follow, favorite, and review! Each one is appreciated deeply.**_

 _ **Until the next time,**_

 _ **\- Matteoarts**_


	7. Healing

_**A/N: Hey all! I'm so sorry about the late update, I've just had massive writer's block as well as a busy schedule from trying to figure out where to fit this in alongside work and college. So, as you'll see in a moment, this chapter is a bit different. Since we need to get from point A to point B of Tobias' health, I figured I'd write a few mini-stories that occurred during that time, and compile them here. Here you go!**_

* * *

 _ **Four's Logbook**_

 _So … I guess I'm doing this again._

 _Apparently, a lot of people read my logs. Or, at least a lot of the people I knew. After I was … gone … they went through them and combed through in interest. They saw my thoughts, felt like I was really there at times. I wouldn't know, because obviously I wasn't._

 _Gates told me that while I'm building myself back up, I should keep a record of it. So here I am, I guess. I don't really know what to say anymore. Trying to get back into the swing of things … it feels like there's just broken pieces of me inside. I can't make jokes like I used to, can't bring myself to care as much as I used to. I'm just … numb._

 _Sorry for anyone reading this, that probably sounded a bit too depressing._

 _I am grateful for a few things, of course. Gates has been nothing but amazing, which is why I'm glad that Briggs didn't punish her for saving me. She's helped me through every step of readjusting so far. She keeps others away from me when I need space, and she's there when I need company. And for the whole thing with me now being a part of the 6-4 … it just feels great to have someone who has my back for these kinds of things. It feels great to be a part of a family._

 _And Kay … God, I can't express how fantastic it is to have her back. She's more than just my best friend, she's … well, she's everything to me. Hard to believe that a few years back, she was nothing to me but the enemy. Yet … now she's my whole world._

 _I heard about the guy who basically saved Harmony from the fold weapon on Typhon, a new Pilot named Jack Cooper. Apparently, his Titan had to sacrifice himself in order to keep Cooper alive, as well as stopping the IMC. Can't imagine what he's going through, losing his Titan like that._

 _If I'd had to go on without Kay at my side, I … I honestly don't know what I'd do. I'm glad that I don't have to think about it._

* * *

THE RANGE

* * *

Another burst of bullets ever so slightly off target.

Gates nodded at him from the side, where she watched his progress with her arms crossed. "You're definitely getting better."

He grunted in mild acknowledgement. It wasn't good enough. Or, maybe it actually would be, but he was trying to go for perfection here. He _needed_ to. And he was going to stay here in the shooting range until he-

"I'm telling you, prosthetics would steady your aim-"

"I don't _want_ prosthetics," he growled. "I just … I just don't."

He lined up the rifle again, pulling the trigger once he thought he was on target. For a moment, he thought that he was golden, but then the recoil kicked in and jerked his aim away once more. His three remaining appendages on his left hand were having a significantly harder time steadying the barrel than they would be if they were a complete set. He exhaled frustratedly.

"Look, you honestly don't need the practice," Gates scolded. "Your aim would more than sufficiently neutralize an enemy. So why do you insist on getting it perfect?"

"Because it has to be," he replied offhandedly, waving her away.

"Well, prosthetic fingers would make it perfect-"

"It has to be perfect _without_ prosthetics" he clarified.

She crossed her arms even further, if that was possible. Her body language was that of someone quickly losing patience. "So, you want perfect aim without the aid of prosthetics for your missing fingers. Right, good luck with that."

Tobias ignored her and raised the gun for another shot.

"This is about you proving yourself, isn't it?"

He froze, and quickly shrugged it off. "I don't need to prove anything to anyone."

"Oh, I agree. You've more than shown what you're capable of. Which is why I'm confused as to why you keep trying to prove yourself … to you."

His shoulder slumped.

She waited for him to speak, refusing to budge on the issue until he did.

He rolled his eyes. "I know it sounds stupid … but I feel so different from before. From how I felt years ago."

"How so?"

"I feel empty. Uncaring. And, well … not as useful. I've got more scars on my body than I can count, and that's not including mental ones. I know I'm damaged, there's no denying it. But I just … I just want to be as good as I used to be. I don't want to be a lesser version of myself or something-"

He felt a hand on his shoulder, and turned to see her next to him. "Four, you listen to me. You _are_ damaged, no if's and's or but's about it. Probably more than any of the rest of us." She jabbed her finger into his chest. "But that does _not_ make you a lesser man for it. If anything, it makes you stronger. I can't think of anyone who could have gone through what you did and lived to tell the tale."

"But-"

"So you'll never be a William Tell. Who cares? What matters is you can shoot, and better than most despite your disadvantage. But you're never going to be happy if you keep comparing yourself to who you once were instead of asking who you are now."

He sighed, and she saw from the fight leaving him that she had won. She patted him on the back. "C'mon, let's go."

"… I'm still not getting the prosthetics."

"Whatever."

* * *

THE REUNION

* * *

Tobias chewed his food quite unenthusiastically for someone who was supposed to be hungry.

 _You have to regain a lot of muscle mass if we're going to be darting around the stars looking for … whatever it is._

He rolled his eyes, though KT couldn't see him. "Yeah, I'm aware. Doesn't mean I have to like it."

A few of the riflemen at a table nearby gave him a look. Most people were blind to the many aspects that came from being a Titan Pilot, one of which was the neural link between them. As far as they knew, he was just sitting there talking to himself. Which was fine by him; anything that kept people from bothering him, and made them stay away. He didn't much care for friends nowadays, unless it was the 6-4 or KT.

 _What could be so bad about eating?_

"It's like how if someone tells you to do something, you immediately lose interest in it? I _have_ to eat for these stupid requirements, therefore I'm unhappy about it."

 _Sometimes I've thought about what it's like to be a human; to be capable of such amazing ideas and yet such stupid psychological viewpoints at the same time._

He chuckled. "That's humans for you. Sometimes, we're the pioneers of interstellar travel and colonization, and sometimes we're the same monkeys we were millions of years ago, trying to figure out how to use our opposable thumbs."

"Hey, Four!"

He turned at the noise. "Hold on, KT." Gates was striding towards him, obviously happy about something. He only knew because he'd known her for such a long time; to the other soldiers in the cafeteria, she might as well have been brandishing a knife. They wisely averted their gaze and tried not to draw attention from the Pilots. Back when he'd still been a grunt, he would have done the same thing.

She stopped a few feet in front of him. "So, I received a request for two visitors from Briggs' main fleet a few days back and approved it. Apparently, they heard the news about you being rescued, and needed to see for themselves."

He raised an eyebrow quizzically. "Visitors? But who-" The question froze on his tongue as he looked behind and saw two Militia Pilots approaching. One a Simulacrum, and one wearing a new armor he'd seen on some of the people around here. He couldn't remember the exact name of it, but he knew it had something to do with an ability the armor granted with an attachment, a 'Pulse Blade' or something. She was female, too.

"No way," he breathed.

They came up and stopped right in front of him. There was silence for a few awkward seconds until the Simulacrum faked a cough. "Thanks for the warm welcome, huh?"

He laughed, _genuinely_ laughed, and moved forward to embrace them. The reciprocated enthusiastically.

Vale chuckled back. "There we go, that's better."

Tyra punched her shoulder lightly. "Amelia!" Shaking her head, Tyra faced her helmet towards him. "It's great to see you. Wish you could see me too, but we were too excited to see you and decided to skip storing our armor. So …" She tapped the side of her helmet with a loud knocking noise, indirectly explaining the reason for her hidden features.

He waved her apology aside. "Don't worry about it, I'm just glad to see you both. It's, uh … it's been a while, huh?"

Vale shrugged sarcastically. "You could say that."

Together, the four of them sat down and began to talk. Tobias could feel a bit of life creeping back into him as they recounted their experiences in the time he'd been absent, and he enjoyed having to eat for once.

 _You're so weird._

"Quiet, Kay."

* * *

THE GRADUATE

* * *

The training Spectre barely had the chance to turn its head toward the noise it heard before a strong force kicked it clean off.

Breezing past the now incapacitated robot, Tobias looked left at a pair of Spectres jogging towards him. Running towards them in his training suit, he jumped once as they started to shoot, and then activated the grapple hook on his left arm. It stuck to the ground in front of them, and as he used his jump kit a second time, the momentum carried him in an arc over the rubber bullets, over their heads, and allowed him to land directly behind them.

Drawing his Flatline, he unloaded into the two of them. Registering the sensation of practice ammo on their external sensors, they deactivated and fell over, 'dead'.

Not missing a beat, he looked back towards his target; past the oddly shaped obstacles that only a Pilot could bypass, to the end of the Gauntlet where KT crouched in a 'landing' position. He grinned.

"Requesting titanfall!"

Gates sounded confused over the comms, since he was calling it a bit early. _"Standby for titanfall."_

He made a sprint towards where KT would land. Jumping onto an angled wall, he held his left hand out to balance himself as his right held his rifle out at arm's length. Nowhere near as accurate as with two hands on the gun, but it would do the job. As predicted, another group of Spectres dashed out from behind cover of a wall only to eat bullets. They fell over in synchronization as he leapt from the wall and landed on his knees. Fortunately, they were padded for such moments like this.

He slid forward and under a low-hanging barrier, only to find a group of Spectres waiting for him on the other side. Aiming his left arm up, he grappled the ceiling and pulled himself out of their reach. They were confused only for a moment before an arc grenade fell from above and short-circuited their systems.

Landing lightly on his feet, he was just in time to hear, " _Titan is ready."_ That meant that he could end it now.

Running forward, he was nearly there before he froze. Waves of Spectres suddenly flooded the arena, firing at him as they walked. Diving behind a short block of cover, he played with several ideas in his mind. Almost immediately, one stood out to him above the others, and he grinned mischievously under his helmet.

"KT! Mind lending a hand?"

Immediately, the Vanguard Titan stood up and spoke over the comms. _"With pleasure."_

Peeking out from cover, he was able to see her send a row of Spectres flying with one swipe from her massive metal fists. With another backhand, she crushed two others into scrap metal.

Taking his opportunity, he jumped out from cover and made a beeline for her. Leaping onto one of the wall-running blocks jutting from the ceiling, he sprinted along it until he reached the end. Leaping off the edge, he over shot his goal of KT by a few feet, and quickly grappled her back. Using his momentum, he swung around the side of her and kicked yet another Spectre into the side of the arena. Compensating for his speed, she reached out a hand and pulled him from the air before placing him safely inside her cockpit.

" _Gauntlet run over. Not sure that was entirely within the rules, but I'll let it slide,"_ Gates chuckled through the radio.

"Alright!" he whooped. Extending his hand out through the open hull of KT, she reached a hand to her chest to give him a gentle high five.

Gates gave a staticky sigh. _"I suppose that this means you're fit enough to have that 'mission' of your approved."_

She said nothing after that, but he knew what she was thinking. It was the same thing that KT had voiced when he'd told her; trouble seemed to follow him wherever he went.

He hopped out of the hull, and looked back at the Vanguard. "You still with me on this, Kay?"

She nodded without hesitation. "I'll follow you anywhere, Tobias."

He sighed. "Well, I still don't know where we're going … but I'll be glad to have you there at my side."

KT hummed softly. "Always."


	8. Nightmare

_**YOU HAVE NOT YET BEEN TESTED.**_

 _Tobias lifted himself weakly from the ground, struggling to pull himself forward. He had to … he had to …_

 _ **HUMANITY IS NOT READY FOR WHAT IS TO COME.**_

 _Mirages and visions tore through his mind, creating an overflow of horrific images._

 _Screams rang out as chaos and pain reigned above all other sensations. Bodies lay strewn about in masses, a testament to the tragedy long forgotten._

 _They hide._

 _They cried._

 _They died._

 _Twisted, broken forms hovered at the edge of his sight. Twitching, as though their jerky movements were not entirely their own. They came ever closer, and he crawled away at the terror before him._

 _Fleshy wounds and boney protrusions were all that awaited him. Maws with red-rimmed teeth in places they shouldn't be, stained with the life of their last victims. The sounds, the_ _ **sounds!**_ _They slithered, they creaked, they roared, they screamed. Otherworldly noises of pure pain was all that surrounded him._

 _In an instant they were gone, and he was thrown into a world of howling wind. Unnaturally loud and formidable, it surrounded the landscape in all directions. Snow crunched underneath him as he shifted in place, and cold needles spread throughout his body._

 _ **BUT THERE IS NO OTHER PATH. YOU MUST FIND THE ARRAYS.**_

" _What arrays?!" he shouted into the storm. "What do you mean?"_

 _ **YOU ARE THE INFERNO, THE ONE CHOSEN FOR THIS BURDEN. THE FATE OF ALL RESTS ON YOUR SHOULDERS.**_

 _Familiar scenes flickered again, back to something … massive. A machine, some kind of plan …_

"Four!"

 _A world dominated by ice and wind._

 _ **YOUR ANSWERS WAIT THERE, BURIED UNDER EONS OF PREPARATION. THE TIME HAS COME.**_

"Dammit, what's wrong with him?! He just won't-"

 _ **THE TIME HAS COME …**_

"Tobias! Snap out of it!"

He blinked his eyes rapidly, the snow and wind blearily transitioning back to his quarters. He was on the ground, and Gates watched his movements closely from the door a few feet away. Behind her was a medical officer, probably someone she'd brought with her.

He focused on her, and she noticed his attention slowly returning from whatever he'd been seeing. "Tobias? Can you hear me?"

Blankly, he tried to process what she'd said. After he had, he jerkily nodded, as though waking from a deep sleep. "Yeah, I … I'm here."

She cautiously took a step forward. "That's good. Now, just … just put the blade down."

He was taken aback, and immediately looked at his right hand. Grasped tightly in it was a sharp piece of metal. There was no handle, and his hand was bleeding from cuts sustained from gripping it too hard. He had no idea what it had been fashioned from, he definitely hadn't made it knowingly. He dropped it, and stared at it in shock as Gates walked over to him and knelt down. "You alright?"

The medical examiner, now confident that Tobias wasn't going to stab him, made his way over and began to assess the damage to his hand.

He shook his head. "I …" He couldn't remember with precision what his nightmare had been of; just that it terrified him. "I don't know." He looked back at his bleeding hand. "How did you know to come in here?"

Gates sounded scared. "KT notified us that she was detecting an anomaly in your neural link with her. To be more specific, your activity patterns matched that of someone who was being tortured, or in incredible pain. We thought that someone was mugging you in your sleep or something, but we didn't expect … this."

She waved a hand at the ground, and as he followed her gaze his jaw began to lower in shock. Etched into the floor were scratches and lines that could have only come from him using that makeshift knife. But they weren't random scrapes, they were intentional, designed. He analyzed them a little closer as Gates did the same.

"What is this? Some kind of code? It almost looks like-"

"Constellations," he breathed. "It's a star chart."

Indeed, he could see it now; it was a layout of space. And he even recognized some of it. "Look, at these clusters here; they're identical to the charts of the frontier."

With quick thinking, Gates pointed to the medic. "You, out." The man was taken aback, but quickly complied at the harsh tone in her voice. Tobias understood; the importance of what he'd just made needed to be kept secret.

She nodded, but then stopped. "But … that's such a small part of it. What is all this, then? All these other star patterns here?" She gestured to the majority of the map. As she'd pointed out, the area of the frontier took up a mere fourth of the total chart he'd created in his sleep. "This is all uncharted space, we've never ventured past the frontier; too few resources to explore it. How is it possible for you to map it out?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "All I know is-"

… _Find the arrays …_

The words echoed throughout his head, playing over and over again. "I had a dream. This is because I'm the Inferno, because I still have a link with the beings who created it and the Ark! I'm supposed to find something, but I don't know where-"

He froze as his eyes glanced over a particular section of the map. She followed his gaze, and gave a small gasp. "Holy shit …"

One system was circled repeatedly, obviously the center of importance. A route had been engraved into the floor from it to a system in the frontier. A very familiar one …

"That's where we are," Gates exclaimed, coming to the same realization as he had. Which meant that this chart was to be followed from here to the mystery system. The only issue was that it was nearly half the length of the frontier away, and in completely unknown space at that. A journey that long would take at least several months.

"Jesus …" she muttered. Around the mystery system, and indeed dispersed throughout the entire chart, was a word written over and over and over.

"… Amalgamation …?"

It was scrawled in the same style that someone in a state of panic would use; hastily, frighteningly dug into the floor .

 _Amalgamation._

 _Amalgamation._

 _Amalgamation._

If he didn't know that he'd written it himself, he'd have thought that he was looking at the work of a psychopath.

They stared at it for a minute, simply astounded. She looked at him at the same time that he looked at her. "I know what you're thinking-"

He cut her off before she could deny him. "What did I tell you? Something _big_ is happening, something worse."

"You don't _know_ that-"

"Would you be willing to take that risk?"

She fell silent for a few moments before responding. "… No. I'd investigate it."

He advanced. "This is it, Gates. I know it is."

She sighed. "How do you even know that this thing is accurate? For all we know, there could be nothing there."

He gestured at the frontier on the chart. "That part is completely accurate, why wouldn't the rest of it be? Think about it, this is the Rosetta stone of maps here!"

She said nothing.

He racked his brain to convince her. "You've trusted me before on gambits like this. When I proposed the Kraken raid, when I said we needed to find Erebus-"

"Those weren't half the frontier away! You had very little to go on before, and this is even less than that!"

"You know what needs to be done just as much as I do. I know that I'm the crux of this, nobody else can do it! I-"

Unexpectedly, she quickly reached up and pulled her helmet off. Her hair hung in front of her eyes once more, brown eyes that seemed to have a fire within them.

"Say it to my face."

He furrowed his brow. "What?"

She grabbed his shoulders and made him face her. "Look me in the eyes when you say it. I need to see that you mean what you say."

He locked gazes with her and sighed heavy-heartedly. "I _have_ to do this. I wish I didn't, but I do. And you know it."

Her expression remained unchanged for a moment, but he saw something he never thought he'd see, and it disturbed him more than he thought it would.

He could see the telltale signs of wetness in the corners of her eyes. To see her beginning to break, and over _him_ especially … it was completely unexpected.

She shoved her helmet back on, but her voice remained a bit stuffy sounding, like she had a lump in her throat. "God, I hate you sometimes."

"Gates, I-"

She interrupted him, looking away as they sat on his madness-induced creation. "Why can't you ever just be a little more selfish? Why do you have to be so damn … altruistic? Just for once, can't you think about yourself?"

She seemed resigned to the fact that he was doing this, which was good news in the long run. On the other hand, he had no idea how to handle this.

She gave the slightest of shudders in her breathing, her voice hitching as he spoke. "From the moment I met you, you're always biting off more than you can chew. It's always 'let me help with this', 'let me do that'. It's so stressful to see you put yourself in so many dangerous situations, it's a miracle you haven't died yet. You've just been imprisoned and tortured for over two years, yet here you are again; all too eager to get out and save people again."

She shook her head sadly. "One of these days, you're not gonna come back."

He waited a moment or two before responding. "There are thousands of Militia soldiers that don't make it home, why should I place any more value on my life than theirs?"

She huffed. "Maybe you don't. But I do. Vale and Tyra do. KT does."

"Why?"

She looked at him. "Because they're not you."

He had no proper response to that, and she knew that she had the last word. She sighed, and stood up.

"You'll want to go and let KT know that you're alright. She was worried sick about you. I'll set up a briefing in a few, and we'll discuss the details of this mission of yours." Without waiting for a reply, she exited the room.

He looked at the chart again, and couldn't help but feel apprehensive.

 _Amalgamation._

 _Amalgamation._

 _Amalgamation._

…

He exited the corridor between ship sections, and began to walk towards the Titan barracks. He stopped short when he realized that KT was already out here in the rear hangar waiting for him.

"Tobias?" she called to him, and he moved over to her.

"Hey! What are you doing out here?"

She shifted anxiously from one large metal foot to the other. "I was worried about your safety. I didn't think that you were really being attacked, but your brain activity was … frightening, to say the least."

He nodded, remembering how terrified he'd been when he'd woken up. "Yeah … some kind of nightmare."

She looked at him curiously. "Is it to do with the Inferno? With those visions you've been having?"

He nodded reluctantly. "Yeah. And honestly, it scares me a bit."

KT's optics narrowed. "What about it scares you? The mission?"

He shook his head. "No, not the mission."

He had no idea what he'd seen in that hallucination, or whatever it was. But he knew that it terrified him. Those noises he'd heard, they were all he could remember clearly. And they were noises that set his teeth on edge, made him want to look over his shoulder constantly for an unknown entity that could strike him at any moment.

He felt chills run up his spine just from thinking about it.

"I saw … things. I don't know what they were, but … there was so much pain, so many bodies. I just …" He looked up at her. "I have no idea what we're getting into. But if it's really as horrific as I saw …" He shuddered.

KT was taken aback by his answer. "Tobias … you're scaring me a bit."

He furrowed his brow. "I hate to say it, but good. Where we're going … I think we'd be fools not to be afraid."

* * *

 _ **A/N: Game changer everyone! What is the great threat? What's waiting for them at the mystery system? What is this all this leading to? Answers will come with the following chapters, but in the meantime you can pick apart the few hints that have been left here for you all. Hopefully, this chapter is throwing you guys a bit of a curveball.**_

 _ **As always, please review! I love knowing what you guys are thinking, and they motivate me to get the next chapters out! Can't wait to see what you guys think of this.**_

 _ **Until the next time,**_

 _ **\- Matteoarts**_


	9. Departure

_**Four's Logbook**_

 _Gates wants to do the briefing later today, and iron out the details of what's going to happen._

 _Usually, this would be the part where I'd ask Briggs for clearance on the mission; but now that I'm part of the 6-4, I'm technically not under her command anymore. As far as anyone's concerned, this is just me taking a personal journey. To an unknown system. With basically nothing but visions and delusions for an idea as to what might be waiting there for me._

 _Yeah, I'm still a bit nervous about this whole thing._

 _I've been pondering that word in my head for the last day or so; 'amalgamation'. I wrote it all over the damn floor, but don't have any idea what it means. I mean, I know the definition easily enough, I just don't know why I would have engraved it everywhere like a damn mantra. What kind of unification? Do I need to get these 'arrays' or whatever together? That doesn't seem right, but I don't have anything else to go on at the moment._

 _She's right, in a way. I do tend to stick my neck out for others more often than I need to. And nobody, myself included, has nailed down the exact reason for it; but I've got an theory._

 _Back when I was IMC, and KT and I were staring each other down in the snow, I would never have done all the things that I've done so far. I wanted peace for the frontier, yeah, but … man._

 _I was a rifleman for a long time, watching Pilots fly overhead and use the environment not as a battlefield, but as a playground. Everything could be used to your advantage, become your weapon … as a Pilot._

 _Now, as a grunt, I didn't exactly fit that description. I learned to take care of myself, no one else. After all, who would keep the dream of peace on the frontier alive if I was gone? That was my rationalization, anyway. When I was trained as a Pilot, that view didn't change. All it meant was that now I was better at keeping myself alive. Not at completing the mission, not saving my teammates. I was all that mattered. I hadn't been given a Titan yet to care for, a partner to fight with. I didn't have that sense of trying to care for someone else, even if I didn't realize it._

 _When I met KT, my mind screamed 'enemy'. I'm sure that hers did too. So we sat there, fully expecting the other to kill us._

 _But then she did something I never would have expected; not from a member of the Militia, and certainly not from a Titan._

 _She let me go._

 _I had no idea what to do. All I'd ever cared about was keeping myself alive, and she'd just given me the opportunity to do just that. But then it became apparent that she was not as fortunate as I was, too damaged to move from her spot in the snow._

 _I knew that there was no way that she'd make it … at least, not without help._

 _A sort of realization hit me then; if you had the power to make things right, was it not your responsibility to do that? It kind of clicked for me that her fate rested in my hands, whether I wanted it or not. I snapped out of that 'sole survivor' mindset, and repaired her. I'm so glad I did, because now she's my best friend and I shudder to think of a life without her._

 _Maybe I take my own motto too literally, but I can't help it. When I was the only one who thought we needed to look for Erebus, it was my responsibility to ensure that we stopped whatever the IMC were planning. When I was the only one who could locate Typhon, it was my responsibility to be captured and lead the Militia to it. And now, yet again, I'm the only one who has even the slightest inkling of what the hell is going on. As the Inferno, it's my responsibility to find whatever these dreams are leading me to and see if there's a potential threat._

 _I didn't ask for this duty. I wish that I could pawn it off to someone else. But the bottom line is that I can't; this is the hand I've been dealt, and I'm gonna make a bigger difference by simply accepting that and moving on instead of bitching about it._

 _I hope Gates understands that._

* * *

Gates turned at the sound of Tobias walking into the hangar. Normally they'd hold a briefing in the mission room or on the bridge, but this was the only place that KT could fit to hear the plan as well. A few riflemen hung around idly carrying out menial tasks, but they were too engrossed to pay them much attention. Here was as good a spot as any.

The other members of the 6-4, as well as Vale, Tyra, and KT were situated around in a small semi-circle of storage boxes for chairs. Davis gave a low whistle.

"Man, it's one thing after another with you, isn't it?"

"Put a lid on it," Gates cut across. He held his hands out in a gesture of mock-surrender.

Bear turned to her from his seat. "Any news on Briggs or Cooper?"

Gates sighed. "Yeah, they're keeping the majority of the Militia fleet near Harmony for a while. With a scare as large as the fold weapon, the planet was basically on lockdown for quite a while. The IMC haven't done anything in retaliation yet, but that's not to say they won't." She stopped and turned to look at Tobias. "Now, I'd say it's about time that we went over why we're here in the first place."

She looked around the group as though she were a judge delivering a verdict. "The IMC have been beaten back, maybe even halted altogether for a while … but Four here says that something else is coming."

She looked at him, allowing him to explain in his own words. He cleared his throat anxiously. "For the last year, I've been having periodic dreams. They spoke of a great threat, and I thought that they meant the fold weapon."

He swallowed hard. "But the fold weapon is gone, and they still continue. And they're clearer now than ever before. I think … I think that there's something bad coming, something that none of us are ready for. Apparently, I need to find 'arrays' or something. They have something to do with 'amalgamation'."

Vale sighed with mock-exasperation. "Just for once, can't you have a premonition of, I don't know … happiness? Or just, something not world-ending?" He had no answer, and she seemed taken aback. "Usually, you'd joke right back to me. Something wrong?"

His eyes were downcast. "I just … I saw what I saw. And I'm scared. That's all."

That seemed to shut everyone up. Tobias was a lot of things, but frightened was never usually one of him. Yet, fear was quite evident upon his face.

It unsettled them.

"What … what have you seen?" asked Tyra tentatively.

He hesitated to tell them for a moment, but decided it would be best if they were as informed as possible. "I'm not sure, I can't ever fully comprehend it in the visions. But … I know that I'm being spoken to by the beings who created the Inferno and the Ark. Beings of, as we've seen firsthand, immense power."

He looked over the group , watching as they held onto every word. "And they're terrified. There's pain, there's screaming …"

He stopped as he saw their expressions turn from morbid curiosity to one of fear, mirroring his own.

Droz, usually silent, gave a shudder. "Jesus, you sure know how to tell a ghost story, that's for sure."

"But …" muttered Bear, "… if they weren't able to stop whatever it is, what chance do we have?"

Gates stepped in, refusing to allow morale to drop too low. "That's what we're here to find out. Four?"

He nodded in understanding. "While I was sleeping, I made a map."

"What do you mean?" questioned Droz.

He furrowed his brow in thought. "I guess, while I was sleepwalking or something, I was influenced by the Inferno. However it happened, I woke up and I'd carved a massive star chart into the floor. It covers both the frontier … and a lot of uncharted space beyond it. There's a system far from here that seems to hold the answers, or at least clues as to what's happening … and how maybe we can stop it."

Vale looked around the group. "Alright, so which of us are on the team that goes there?"

"None of you."

All of them turned to him with surprise on their faces.

"What?" exclaimed Tyra. "None of us?"

He nodded. "That's right."

Gates sighed. "Vale, Tyra. You two aren't under my jurisdiction, you're still under the command of Briggs. And I'm not going to be sending any of the 6-4 there either, there are just too many unknowns to justify risking their lives." She gestured towards Tobias. "The only reason he's going is because if there really is a threat, then he's the only one that can have a hope at stopping it. He's the Inferno, which means he'll know more about this than any of us would."

Vale grunted. "This is bullshit."

Gates ignored her. "This doesn't mean to say that we're not going to be involved. I'm going to let Briggs know what we're doing, just in case there _is_ some kind of threat. While Four is investigating the planet, we'll be performing regular check-ins every day." She clasped her hands together. "Now, a journey this long would usually take a few months for a frigate, but so long as we keep the ship small, I think that warp-space can minimize the travel time. Communication will still be delayed, but it should be only a few hours difference."

She looked around the room. "If things go wrong, or … if there _is_ some kind of threat … then we're the first line of defense against it. It will be our job to warn everyone of what might happen. Which is why we're staying here." Her gaze fell upon Tobias, and her voice seemed to become a bit more tired. "It's not the ideal situation, but … as Four said, it has to be done."

He appreciated her coming to terms with it, as much as she didn't like it. She turned back to the rest of the group. "Any other questions?"

No one raised an objection.

"Alright. Four, pack your gear. I've got a ship ready for departure in three hours."

…

Tobias had done some last-minute checks on the ship, just to make sure everything was in working order. Now, with nothing left to take his mind off what he was doing, he was inspecting his new gear and armor for any flaws. KT watched him from a few feet away as he worked.

It was a unique set of armor, or at least more unique than he'd seen before. The base color of the set was queen blue, though there were accents of white all over it, including the helmet. A few years back every Pilot had the same standard armor, but with so many advancements he supposed it was inevitable to have individuality.

The main body's armor was lightweight, and pretty form-fitting. He thought he'd seen a few of those Various pads and utility pouches adorned his figure, as well as a grappling hook equipped to the left arm. The gloves looked to be much more useful this time around; rather than fingerless gloves, his hands were fully covered, though the fingers still retained that appearance by being colored white instead of the blue that the rest of the hand had.

The helmet wasn't like anything he'd seen before he was captured; it was compact, and rounded on the top. The visor was wide, allowing for a greater field of view if the suit's ocular systems failed. It didn't have that 'x' design that the other Pilot helmets had; rather, it was one solid piece that wrapped around the front of the helmet. The visor was a nice cyan color, very pleasant to look at.

He definitely liked his old armor, but … damn. All things considered, this looked pretty damn good.

"Pilot suits have far improved since the last time you wore one," remarked KT.

"Yeah, I can see that," he replied. "Glad that I don't have to sacrifice safety for unity this time." The last time he'd asked for a Pilot suit, it had nowhere near as much as protection as his IMC one at the time, but he'd done it so that and KT could be more closely bonded; sharing the colors of the Militia rather than having two different sides.

Finding nothing wrong, he proceeded to store the suit in the ship. Rather than using a cramped Widow for the trip, they'd taken a vehicle transport shuttle and removed all the equipment in it, allowing KT room to move around and be stored in the vehicle bay. It was small enough to use a warp-drive, but big enough for their needs.

He stepped out from the ship's hangar, and beckoned KT inside. "Alright Kay, c'mon."

She stood up to her full height and walked up the hangar ramp. Once she was next to him, she stopped and looked around. "Roomier than I'd have thought."

"You sure you'll be fine?" he asked. She focused on him, and flashed him a thumbs up.

He nodded. "Alright then." He was about to head further into the ship towards the cockpit when he saw Gates walking towards him. He turned back, and met her at the ramp.

She looked around nervously. "I know it has to be done, but …" She shivered. "I still get fearful that every time you leave is the last time I'm gonna see you."

He placed his hands on his hips. "Nah, I'll be fine. It's me, remember? There isn't anything I haven't survived yet, I'm pretty sure I'm practically invincible at this point."

She pointed a finger warningly at him. "Don't jinx it, this is _not_ the mission we want your lucky streak to end." She put her finger away and crossed her arms. "Stay in contact, and keep us informed of any developments. Find out what you need to, and then get out of there. You've got just enough fuel to make it there and back, but not much else. Use it sparingly."

Then she stepped forward and gave him a hug. By now, he was used to this softer side of Gates, and apparently she was a fan of hugs. Stepping back, she wagged her finger at him again. "Most important of all, make sure you come back safe. Or I'll kick your ass."

He chuckled, and gave her a two fingered salute with his right hand. "That's the plan."

Stepping back, he walked over and pushed a button to begin raising the ramp. Angling upwards, it began to close off view until Gates couldn't see him anymore and the ship was sealed.

She watched as the jets of the ship slowly lit up, and stepped back quite a bit to watch as it gently eased off the ground in accordance with the guide lights, and exit the hangar. She watched it pass through the shield, and gave a small sigh.

"Good luck, you two. You're gonna need it."

* * *

 _ **A/N: Alright, I think I'm getting the hang of my upload schedule again.**_

 _ **Before anyone asks what his armor is, it's kind of difficult to explain. I suppose the best way to think about it would be to take the body of the male holo-pilot from the game, slim it down a bit, and then take Viper's helmet from the campaign and put it on. Then just apply the colors stated in the chapter, and bada bing bada boom. I just wanted to make the distinction because I'm sure that some of you were (incorrectly) thinking he looked like a grapple Pilot at this point or something. He does have a grappling hook, but that's not the point.**_

 _ **I think that the pacing for this story has been a bit slower than 'Inferno', but I'm happy to finally get into the action. I've got lots to show you all in the next few chapters, so stay tuned!**_

 _ **As always, please review and favorite! I love reading your thoughts!**_

 _ **Until the next time,**_

 _ **\- Matteoarts**_


	10. Epitaph

_There was no hope._

 _They were everywhere; there was no way to hide, no way to run. Mercilessly, people were massacred. They ran through, slaughtering anything in their path towards brutal and utter domination._

 _He watched as one hazy form enveloped another. He could not see what was happening; he could only hear the gargles and choked cries of pain as the victim was-_

 **…** _**Tobias …**_

 _He spun around, looking for the voice, his one source of strength in this hell. But while his ears gave him courage, his eyes took it away. There was nothing around him but dunes of sand and treacherous terrain._

 _The sky was red, a disturbing red. Then-_

 _He was sliding down a snow-covered hill, tumbling over rocks and ice. He knew not what was behind him, only that it was coming fast-_

 _ **-Tobias!**_

 _As he fell into the bank of snow below, it became water. Plunging deep into its depths, he floundered upward towards the surface. Something roared beneath him, but what he couldn't see in the dark of the ocean. Just that it was big …_

 _His head broke the surface, and he quickly saw that he was in a hole of some kind in the water, a deep one. Struggling with his armor on, he began to swim towards the edge of the hole-_

 _ **-TOBIAS!**_

With a jerk and painful clang of his forehead against metal, he woke up. He looked around frantically, half expecting to see himself surrounded by water or snow, but found that he was safe on the transport ship.

Or, at least as safe as one could be while on a suicide mission.

Rubbing his forehead gingerly, he looked to see that he'd been lying his head on the console of the bridge as he sat in the pilot's seat. He must have hit his head on one of the levers or switches that adorned the area. Fortunately, it seemed that he hadn't disturbed any of the systems.

 _Tobias, are you okay?_

He yawned tiredly. "Yeah, KT. I'm fine."

 _Another nightmare?_

He sighed. "Yeah."

She was silent, waiting for him to talk about it. He looked around, seeing that there wasn't much for him to do here. Sighing, he gave in.

"Alright. Hold on, I'm coming down."

There certainly wasn't much to look at in warp-space, and talking things over with her might help. Giving one last check to ensure that the systems were functioning as intended, he stood up from the pilot's chair. He wasn't really piloting, but he liked the feel of sitting in it. Turning around, he headed through the corridors down to the lower levels.

After a few minutes of walking, he came to the large doors that allowed entry to the hangar. Flipping a switch, they began to move away from each other. Inside, KT was sitting in the middle of the floor. Probably a habit that she'd picked up from watching him.

He meandered over to her, and in front of her. She focused on him worriedly with her optics.

"I could sense it through our link again. I don't know what it is that you see, but it scares me how much this is affecting you."

He shrugged. "I'll be fine, Kay. Besides, it's not like there's a lot I can do about it."

She made a displeased hum. "Still, it can't be healthy for you to be having nightmares like that so often. The stress will take its toll on you, eventually."

He extended his arms to show that he was, metaphorically speaking, empty-handed. "Well, what would you recommend? What else can I do?"

"I don't know." She sighed. "I just hate the idea of you having to deal with it."

Again, he shrugged. "They won't kill me. Maybe once we're done with all this, then they'll go away."

"Hopefully."

They sat there contentedly, listening to the hum of the ship's engines as they passed through warp-space on the route that he'd mindlessly etched into the floor of his quarters. It was a few moments before KT moved her blue lens back onto him. "What should we be expecting?"

"What do you mean?"

She shifted slightly. "What are going to be dealing with? You know; weather, hostiles, the usual?"

He nodded in understanding. "Gotcha. Well …" He struggled to remember his dreams. "I'm usually standing around in snow, but I've seen other places too. I can't see much, but there's these … these …"

"These what?" asked KT softly.

He shook his head. "I don't know, I can't ever see them properly. Maybe I don't want to see them. I just know that I don't want to be anywhere near them."

KT looked anxious as she looked around the room awkwardly. "I hope we don't run into them. Do you think that they're the threat you've been warned about?"

He thought about it. "They could be. I kept picturing something like the fold weapon again, but you could be onto something. In that case though, what makes them so dangerous?" He shook his head frustratedly. "I just don't have enough answers to-"

Suddenly, a soft alarm sounded throughout the ship. Not a warning alarm, but an alert to the fact that they were coming out of warp-space. Both he and KT looked at each other, the complete gravity of the situation hitting them.

Quickly, he made his way over to where he'd stored the suit earlier. Pulling it out from a storage locker, he began to put pieces on. "I don't know about you, but I'd rather we get this whole thing done as quickly as possible. I'm gonna take a look on the scans and see if I can pick up anything, so make sure you're geared up for-"

He was cut off as something impacted against the ship, causing a slight rumble and triggering an actual warning alert this time. He looked around wildly. "What the hell?"

KT walked over to a console and accessed it. "There's debris around the ship, source is unknown!"

Swearing, he hurriedly put on his helmet and ran back out of the hangar towards the bridge now that he was fully dressed. "I'm gonna see what the hell's going on!"

After a minute or so of haste, he emerged onto the bridge, and sprinted to the navigation console. Shutting down any engine activity, he effectively halted the ship in space so that they wouldn't run into anything else. With concern in his mind, he quickly checked on the ship's diagnostics. Fortunately, the ship's shields were up and damage had been avoided. He gave a sigh of relief, taking a moment to reflect on the good fortune.

Now, onto the problem at hand.

He walked over to the pilot's area where there was a large viewport to see in front of the ship. What he saw took his breath away. Even if he'd been expecting it, it still filled him with awe.

In front of the ship, still a distance away, was the planet. It was of pretty decent size, probably a bit bigger than Earth. The entirety of the planet looked to be covered in white, though a lot of that was the result of clouds. What wasn't covered by fog or clouds appeared to be ice, scratched with large canyons and cuts into the planet's surface.

"Well, looks like we're here KT," he remarked while still poring over its details. "I almost can't believe it … that star chart I drew in my freaking _sleep_ was right about the system being here …"

 _Which means that your nightmares are probably right too. All the more motivation to stop whatever threat it is that you're being warned about._

He nodded somberly. "Yeah. Almost makes me wish that I was wrong about this place, but …"

Something caught his eye. He finally noticed the debris that had been floating around. But it wasn't rocks from an asteroid belt like he'd expected. In fact, it almost looked like-

His eyes immediately widened as he realized exactly what it was.

"Holy shit."

 _Tobias? What's wrong-_

"The debris, KT. It's other ships."

 _What? What do you mean-_

"There are pieces of _other_ ships here. Human ones. We aren't the first ones to discover this place."

…

Standing in an airlock, he took a few deep breaths. What he was doing was quite dangerous, but then again so was everything else he did. What was the harm in adding one more deed to the list?

 _Damn it, I hate your ideas._

He gave a nervous chuckle. "Join the club, girl."

A green light winked on in the airlock, indicating that it was now depressurized. Proceeding with the plan, he opened the outer hatch.

Had he been given Z-G training? Of course he had, but nothing could prepare anyone for the vast nothingness that spills out in every direction when you're in space. His breath quickened in pace before he forced himself to calm down a bit.

There was no tether aside from his grapple hook, and he was going to use it very carefully. The good news was that his jump pack could theoretically be used as much as possible since there wasn't a gravitational force preventing him. If he could use them as makeshift thrusters, he was going to find out.

 _Oh, God …_

His head perked up for a moment. "What's wrong?"

 _You forget that I can see your visual feed. How are you not terrified about this?_

He was, but she didn't need to know that. Smirking, he joked, "Don't be scared, you're not really here. You're safe in the-"

 _I'm not scared for me, I'm scared for you. At least one of us has to be worried about your safety._

It was nice that he didn't have to speak to her through a crackling radio channel. With the neural link, she was just in his head. Much easier to communicate with. Had there been others with them, they'd have to resort to an open frequency. But as it was just them, they didn't have to worry about it.

He stood on the edge of the small ledge surrounding the exterior of the ship. Looking to the right, he saw the planet. Just above it and to the left was the dead ship. He adjusted his aim, tempered himself for power in his jump, and leapt into the void.

Floating was always such an eerie feeling. Not to mention that since none of your organs were affected by gravity anymore, you were prone to a bit more nausea than on the ground. Trying to distract himself, he took a look around.

He did have to admit, the cosmos were beautiful. Pinpricks of light painted across the pitch canvas of space.

Unexpectedly, he heard a small gasp of astonishment from KT. He grinned. "Enjoying the view?"

 _I've seen stars in space before, but … the view right now is amazing._

He would have voiced his agreement, but he was coming up on the ship now. Since it seemed that he'd overshot it a bit, he calculated a reverse thrust and gently eased back a bit. Launching the grappling hook, it jerked him backwards slightly. That was easily fixed when it attached to the hull and pulled him back and onto it. Now on the hull, it was a bit easier to walk around. Pilot boots were magnetized just for this sort of thing, so he was pretty confident he wouldn't fly off into the abyss.

He tried to get a clue of where he was. Noticing a streak of white above him, he looked at the side of the ship to see a name; _The Manticore._

"Isn't that supposed to be some kind of half-scorpion, half-lion thing?" he asked KT, remarking on the name.

 _According to ancient human myths, yes._

He whistled, and looked out at the debris field. "Man, with all the scrap out here, how many ships do you think make up this graveyard?"

 _I couldn't tell you. I'd need to know what model of ship this is. But I'd assume several._

He nodded. "Well, if that's painted on the side, then I think the nose of it should be farther along this side.

Heading towards the right, he'd only been walking for a minute or so when he came across an airlock. The hatch was broken, which meant that the interior of the ship was depressurized.

"How much oxygen have I got, Kay?"

 _Enough for our purposes._

He shrugged. "Works for me." Carefully moving his body into position, he entered.

Surprisingly, the corridors of the ship looked to be in fairly decent condition. He had no idea how long this thing had been sitting out here, seeing as his only hints were ice crystals that had sprouted up in various places.

He hoped he was heading the right way towards the main deck of the ship. It was deceptively big on the inside. Halls just looped back into more halls, occasionally with a break in repetition for more open spaces. However, this path he was on seemed to be merging with other analogous ones for the other half of the ship. That was good sign that they both led somewhere important.

After a bit more careful exploration, he'd achieved success. His hall combined with another until they split off again into a U pattern around a console. Once past the separation, they formed the large open space that was the bridge.

The first thing that he noticed was the captain's chair, where some poor soul sat frozen in. Stepping closer, he saw that it was female. Her skin had long since dried out, as well as her eyes. She was nothing but a colorless corpse now.

Looking for a cause of death, he noticed a hole blown through both sides of her head; the passage of a bullet. Evidently, she'd killed herself. Her hair waved gently in the Z-G, hovering high above her head like she was upside down. Being in a vacuum and all, her body had been protected from the process of decomposition-

 _Tobias._

He jumped involuntarily. "God, KT! You scared the hell out of me."

 _I'm sorry! Are you nervous?_

She mimicked his previously smug tone from earlier, when he'd asked her the same question. He grumbled, "Of course I'm nervous, I'm walking around in a ship that's been dead for who-knows-how-long, and my only company is some dead woman."

 _Check the data logs, they'll tell you how old the ship is._

Moving forward, he loaded up the ship's computer. It responded easily enough, though he'd had to brush away all the frost that had accumulated on its screen. He whistled in awe.

"Damn, this thing is nearly seventy years old."

KT even sounded shocked. _Why has it been out here for so long?_

He sighed. "That's what I'm here to find out."

Scrolling through other systems, he came across a subset of folders labelled 'personal logs - captain'. Deciding that it would probably give him the best source of information, he accessed it.

Startlingly, it seemed that there were only two files. Or, at least two files that were still usable. He could see a number of others, but they appeared to have been purged. For what reason, he didn't have any idea. With nothing else to do, he opted to open the first. It appeared on the monitor, and he read it to himself.

[CAPTAIN'S LOG - 01]

/ None of us knew what to expect when we exited warp-space, but it certainly wasn't this. /

/ We come across planets all the time out here. With so much space unexplored beyond the frontier, it's impossible not to. But this one's different. We've performed some scans and there appear to be artificial ruins of some kind, evidence of structures _not of human origin._ We could be looking at the first evidence of life beyond humans! We came here to avoid the inevitable war back home, the tension between the inner colonies and the frontier is becoming too much. But what started as an escape mission has now become one of exploration. /

/ We've sent a scouting party to the surface to see what exactly we're dealing with. The planet appears to be covered in storms, massive winds of snow and ice that would make conditions for life impossible; it makes me think that perhaps this is a colonized world of some other species rather than a home. /

/ Whatever we discover here, it's going to change everything. /

[END OF LOG]

That sounded promising enough for him. So the beings definitely had a presence here, though the crew of the Manticore couldn't have known that they'd been gone for hundreds of thousands of years. Moving on, he selected the next log.

[CAPTAIN'S LOG - 21]

/ We never should have come here. /

/ What we thought was a gift is nothing but a curse. People disappear, flicker in and out of existence. Then they come back. And what we've seen is only a hint of what could be, as horrible as that is to imagine. /

/ The ice and winds, the harsh environment … it's not meant to keep things out, it's meant to keep something _in._ /

/ I've destroyed all of the other ships with us. They never saw the missiles coming, never thought I'd dare to turn on them. They didn't understand the magnitude of the situation at hand, didn't understand what _needed_ to be done. I've gone ahead and locked everyone here in their quarters as well. They keep begging me to let them out, to let them live … I can't take it, it's too painful. I'm going to end my own life before my mind breaks from their pleading and I release them. /

/ One thing is certain; nobody can be allowed to leave here. One expedition gone missing, no one will care. There are more than enough missions that go wrong that nobody will miss us, our route won't be rediscovered. But if we were to return and reveal what we've found, nothing would stop the curiosity of humanity. They'd come eagerly to pillage this planet's secrets, and unknowingly bring death to us all. /

/ If, by some minuscule chance of fate, someone does happen to discover this place, I beg you; _leave._ Run as far as you can, and never tell anyone what you've found. We were never meant to find this place. Leave it to remain undisturbed in this god-forsaken corner of the galaxy. Don't let its trail of horror find you too. /

[END OF LOG]

He couldn't pull himself away from the monitor, he was too shaken up. What kind of hell found these people?

 _Tobias._

He kept re-reading that last sentence of the log; _don't let its trail of horror find you too._

 _Tobias!_

Startled, he shook his head to clear his thoughts. "Hey, sorry. I'm here."

 _Are you alright?_

She'd seen the logs too, and wanted to know he was okay. He thought about that for a moment. "No, I'm not. Not in the slightest."

She said nothing for a moment. _You're the leader, here. What do we do?_

He knew that she was asking about the mission. Did they still want to continue, after what he'd just read? Obviously, they were in way over their heads. This was an entire expedition of ships that had died rather than return to the frontier with the knowledge they had. Knowledge that he still wasn't even sure of; what was waiting for them?

Weighing his options, he came to a decision. There was no choice here. If what they'd encountered was as horrible as the logs seemed to imply, and it was now threatening all of humanity, they had to go. They had to take any and all opportunities to stop it if they could.

 _We're going down, aren't we?_

He exhaled deeply to calm his nerves. "Yeah. We're going down."

 _I'll prepare the ship. You should get back to the airlock._

He nodded, but took a look around the bridge again. It was supposed to be a place of power, a place of control. Now, it was just an epitaph to the grave composed of the ships here.

That, and a warning of what was to come.

* * *

 _ **A/N: Did I ever tell any of you that before I wrote books like this, I specialized in horror stories?**_

 _ **Hot damn, I'm pumping these out for you guys. This one's quite a bit longer, so you'll have to forgive me if I take an extra day or two more than usual to write the next chapter. Hopefully this one will tide you guys over until then.**_

 _ **On another note, many of you may have noticed that the covers of both this and Inferno have been changing more than a politician changes their stances. I keep experimenting with different versions now that I'm pretty good at digital art, but I can't decide on one to use. I'll probably keep making new ones until I find a version that satisfies me. I like having KT and Tobias in there, so even though the current one is good, I still think I'd like to change it later. It'll work for now, though.**_

 _ **Oh, and one more thing. There have been several of you that have been around longer than I ever thought you would be, and I'd like to acknowledge those people now;**_

 _ **Plazmatik, you've been here since chapter four of Inferno. Like, holy shit. Your reviews may be quite spaced out, but it's nice to know that you're still there. Thank you for sticking around so long, and here's to hoping that you continue to do so!**_

 _ **Danii2, I crack up every time I read one of your reviews. Sometimes, I still go back and laugh at the consecutive three you made during the last few chapters of Inferno, I couldn't have asked for a better reaction!**_

 _ **The-pomftato932, you leave the most amount of reviews I've ever seen, even going out of your way to make guest reviews when you have additional thoughts. Thanks for that, and also *roundabout*.**_

 _ **ItsJustMe244, I was so flattered when you said you were an aspiring writer and decided to message me questions that you had regarding improvement. I hope your writing endeavors in the future are quite successful, and I'm grateful to have you as a reader!**_

 _ **LadyRyissa, you seem to be an emotional reader; my favorite kind of reader! It always makes me feel good when I can manage to make someone feel something for my characters, and I take it as a personal sense of accomplishment that my writing has such an impact on you. Thank you so much!**_

 _ **That's all for now, but I'll be sure to thank more people next time! Maybe I'll even answer a few questions down here from time to time, who knows?**_

 _ **Make sure to leave a review down below, they (very obviously proven above) make my day that much better, and I read every one!**_

 _ **Until the next time,**_

 _ **\- Matteoarts**_


	11. Echoes of the Past

_**A/N: So, because of continuity errors and whatnot, I've had to make a change to chapter 13 of Inferno to line up with this story. It's not a massive change, so don't worry; but I was looking at some of the science I threw in there (because I needed to do some similar stuff here), and realized that I was a bit off with my accuracy of what I'd written. Hopefully, it all lines up properly now.**_

* * *

 _ **Four's Logbook**_

 _We sent Gates and the rest of the crew back home a message. I gave them what info I could, though I'll admit that I dumbed down the overall message. Somehow, I don't think they'd be very comfortable with the idea of me being here if they knew exactly what that message had detailed._

 _Assuming we get the response in several hours, I've made the decision to land us down on the planet early. That way, Gates can't tell me to not explore it._

 _I've scanned around the planet, or and found anomalous structures all over the planet. It seems that most of them are buried or under the large amounts of snow and ice that has accumulated over the many years since their creators lived here._

 _What is it with snow planets? Why do we have to freeze our asses off every time we go somewhere? The amount of bad luck we must have is astounding, but whatever …_

 _Obviously, those aren't of much use to us, but there's one site that seems promising. It looks like a massive temple or something, definitely important to some degree. There's still a lot of snow there, but not enough to bury the site. There's a lot of interference from the storm, so we don't know everything we're getting ourselves into, but I think it's our best bet._

 _Let's see what secrets this place holds._

* * *

KT looked through the external monitors of the ship, having accessed them from her station in the vehicle bay. There were so many clouds generated by the flurries of snow and wind in the atmosphere, it was hard to make anything out. Fortunately, as they descended, it seemed to be clearing up a bit.

" _Anything yet?"_ came Tobias' voice through an open channel.

She silently responded, _Not yet. When we get through the cloud layer, it should be better; but this wind definitely isn't-_

As if on cue, the ship began to shake a bit more violently from the air resistance it was having to push against, and she could hear Tobias grunting slightly as he tried to remain in control.

 _As I said, the wind isn't helping._

" _Dammit, it's … it's really strong. We should be fine on the ground, but it's giving us a real beating up here in the air."_

Suddenly, something began to appear in the distance. _There, I see it! Starboard side of the ship._

" _Got it. Trying to bring us over there now."_

The gray tips of something peeked out at her from the cloud layer, and finally they were low enough to see the rest of the structure.

It was a massive spire towering over the land. It definitely had the same sort of architectural design that the ruins on Erebus had; simple but monumental. Much of its lower portion stretched down to the ground below, and some of it went straight into the ground, with mounds of rock climbing its sides. On the upper half, the tip of it seemed to split into two before reaching high into the air. There was some kind of connection between them near the top, but she couldn't discern exactly what it was.

Roughly two hundred feet above the large snow banks was a bridge, or landing pad of some kind. It stuck out from the rest of the structure, attracting the sight of any who would approach it. Obviously, whoever designed it knew that it would need to avoid getting buried like the rest of their structures.

She called attention to it. _I think I see a landing zone, tagging it for you on your HUD._

" _Yeah, I see it. It's pretty wide, should be large enough to hold the ship."_

As they approached, she saw that the cloudiness of the air had deceptively made the structure seem much smaller than its true size. The bridge itself was nearing sixty feet in width, and had to be roughly a hundred meters before it connected with the rest of the structure, and it was only a small part of the overall facility.

Apparently, its creators had a very prevalent 'go big or go home' mindset.

As the bridge came rushing up to meet the landing gear of the ship, she disconnected herself from the monitors and waited for the ship to stop moving.

" _Trying to keep this ship steady is a nightmare. But I think I've almost- "_

A very obvious thumb emanated from the bottom of the ship, and signaled to her that they'd landed. Wind could be heard outside, shrieking as it tore against the sides of the vessel.

" _-There we go."_

She walked over to the hangar door, and waited patiently for Tobias to join her.

It was roughly a minute before he came into the hangar, patting down his suit to ensure it was sealed for proper warmth and protection. "Alright, you ready?"

She nodded. "Ready when you are."

Stepping to the side of the hangar, he pressed the button for ramp-control. With a mild blare of sound to signal its activation, the ramp began to descend and gave them their first in-person view of the planet. Together, they stepped out onto the bridge.

The wind was the most pressing issue by far, and it nearly took Tobias off his feet in shock. He held his arms out in order to properly balance himself until he became accustomed to the unusual environment.

Being much heavier with a lower center of gravity, KT was able to maintain her position relatively easily. She looked around, investigating the surrounding area. While visibility was still impaired, it had improved to where she could see for a mile or so in any direction. The spire seemed to be surrounded by a large open plain which led into some mild mountain ranges on all sides.

Tobias finally seemed comfortable with the weather, and followed her gaze. "Man, this is just one big ice-cube, isn't it?"

"It would appear that way."

She watched as he analyzed their surroundings, his blue visor glowing through the snowfall like a beacon. Finally, he pointed towards the main body of the spire. "I think if we're gonna find anything, it'll be in there."

"Agreed."

With that, they set off along the bridge. As they walked, KT continued to monitor their surroundings. Aside from the harsh conditions, it appeared safe enough. However, ever since Tobias had told her about his visions, she had to admit that she was a bit on edge.

Something unusual made itself known on her scanners. She checked the data against shared information in a general database. "That's odd."

"What?"

She looked around, gesturing to the area around them. "I'm detecting temporal distortions, or at least the residue of temporal energy. It's old, but it's there."

He seemed confused. "Come again?"

She explained, "These match up with the same distortions that BT-7274, the Titan that destroyed the fold weapon, found on Typhon. He uploaded his findings to a database for other Titans to access. Those distortions were caused by the Ark, but this … you don't think there's another Ark here, do you?"

He paused; the thought did concern him. "I don't know. Maybe. The entity I spoke with before becoming the Inferno told me that the fold weapons were made as some sort of defensive network. Apparently, there were several of them. This could be another site for all we know. Just let me know if anything grabs your attention, alright?"

She nodded, and they continued their trek.

Suddenly, an anomaly presented itself. She sensed some sort of large object ten meters in front of them on the rightmost side of the bridge. It was as cold as the air around them, so she had reasonable assurance that it was probably just a rock.

As they approached it, however, she saw that it was much more interesting.

Tobias cautiously moved closer. "Looks like a dropship." Indeed, it was an older model of dropship that was tilted slightly on its right side since its landing gear was partially crushed or broken. Frost crystals had almost completely covered it, though not to the point that it was impossible to see what it was.

He seemed to notice this at the same time that she did. "It's not completely frozen over. Neither is the bridge. How is that possible, if the ship's been sitting around for seventy years at least?"

She looked to the surface of the bridge they were standing on, and watched as some snowflakes fell onto it. They remained only for a few moments before dissipating entirely. "There could be a field of sorts, something that's heating and eliminating any snow buildup on the bridge, including the outer surface of the ship."

He made a small hum, like he was thinking to himself. "That means that this place still has power to some degree."

KT wasn't so sure. "Perhaps. Or maybe it's a unique characteristic of the stone itself. We're still not sure of what it is, who knows what kind of properties it has?"

Deciding to investigate, he walked over to to the wreckage. One of the side hatches was slightly ajar, and he looked for the cause. Some kind of physical force had crushed the inner edges of it, preventing it from closing. Whatever it was, it had been strong.

He stepped aside, and waved KT forward. Understanding what he wanted, she moved to it and then slid the door open, albeit with a little difficulty. He gave her a thumbs up, and then hopped into the ship.

There wasn't much room to move around, frost had caked onto every surface it could reach through the small opening. Moving towards the cockpit, he shoved aside piles of snow to reach it.

The scene before him was a simple one, though no less informative. The glass of the cockpit had broken a long time ago, and pieces of it could be seen half-submerged in the snow. Interestingly enough, there wasn't nearly enough debris on the ground to suggest that it had broken inward; which meant that something had broken it from the inside. It was a large enough hole to fit a person, and long-since frozen blood stained the edges of the remaining glass.

He looked to the pilot's chair at first seeing nothing. Then, he took a closer look and realized what he was staring at. He called out, "There's a body in here, KT. Or, most of one."

"What do you mean most of one?" she questioned.

"It's missing its head." After a quick search of the floor, he came up empty. "Wherever it is, it's not in here." He looked back to the rest of the body, covered in a layer of ice crystals. The neck's skin and muscle was nearly completely gone, just a thin dried up husk of what it had once been. Seventy years would normally have allowed for decomposition, but the cold had preserved at least some of it.

The tip of the spinal cord was visible. A ragged slice through it at an awkward angle confirmed that the head had been removed not with precision, but with force. Whatever had done this, it had done it aggressively. Maybe it had also been what broke the glass. Giving a small salute to the fallen person, he stepped back and out of the ship.

"Decapitation is a pretty serious thing," he said. He continued walking toward the spire, KT following behind him. "Not sure what could have done it. A big knife, maybe? Maybe all the people here went insane and started killing each other. It would sure explain what we found on the Manticore."

KT continued watching every corner, now more nervous than ever for her and Tobias' safety. "The sooner we get answers, the sooner we can leave."

They made the rest of the way to the spire in silence, stopping only once they reached the 'entrance'. There was no door, just a singular opening that led deeper into the facility. It was quite large, certainly big enough for a Titan to fit through. They looked at each other instinctively, and then pushed onward into the spire.

Inside, there was no snow. Apparently, the reach of the field that was getting rid of it on the bridge extended to the interior. The ground beneath them was a worn, dull gray color. It was composed of the same kind of stone or material that the ruins on Erebus had been. By now, they were more than aware of how durable it was.

Tobias saw something on the ground to their right, and gave a sigh. "Well, looks like we found the scouting party."

Several bodies were littered around in various positions. Two of them were sitting against the wall, huddled against it as though for warmth. In here, since there was no snow, they hadn't been preserved nearly as well. Their bony remains were all that was left of them. But one sprawled in the center of the room was different.

Unlike the other two, it was not reduced to its skeletal structure. Tobias almost wished that it had been. It was unmistakably human-like, but its skin was blackened, a hardened shell. But even that wasn't the worst part.

Its entire form was warped, brutalized. Its lower jaw was completely absent, looking almost like it had been ripped off. A large split in the chest ran from the neck all the way down to the waist in an elliptical shape. On the sides of each were black nubs of that same shell-like substance, spaced within the folds of the gash that had evidently been skin at one point. So what had the nubs been? He didn't think they were ribs, those wouldn't be placed so evenly and stretched so far down to the pelvic region.

In addition, the left arm was destroyed at the elbow; the preserved nature of it showed that the arm below that point had been severed, but the sharp edge of the remaining bone had been forcibly shoved through what was left of the muscle. It appeared to be warped, far surpassing the normal length of an arm bone and holding a slight curvature to it. Had it been manipulated in some way?

If anything, the right arm was even more horrifying; the ulna had also been corrupted somehow. Though it resembled a more normal view closer to the elbow, the portion of it that connected to the wrist was grossly enlarged and cracked. The hand was simply boggling; it was like all of the bones in it had fused together and then grown simultaneously. The fingers stretched far beyond human capacity and ended in points, like large claws.

He couldn't see a cause of death until he looked at the skull. A large bullet hole had punched through the forehead, and black, flaky edges of the hole were expanded outward from the force of the initial impact.

Looking around at the shadows, he felt jumpy and nervous. He didn't understand any of this, and he was afraid of things he didn't understand. If you had knowledge of something, you could combat it; you could logically process what to do, how to react, how to plan proper countermeasures.

But this? This was just something out of a nightmare.

He stood back up, not wanting to stare at the remains any longer. "This one must have been more recently killed than the others with how well it's preserved."

Perhaps it was a bit unnecessary, but he drew his B3 Wingman from its holster at his side. He didn't think its presence was needed, but it did help him feel more secure in their current position.

KT scanned it, then paused uncomfortably. "No."

His gaze snapped to her. "No?"

She looked at him, and he could see the agitation in her optics. "The other two bodies align with the established timeline; sixty-eight years old. But this one …" She looked back at it. "I can't tell how old it is. Parts of it are like the other two, but others are reaching upwards of fifty thousand years, the maximum of my capability to carbon date. It's impossible for human flesh to avoid decomposition for so long, but … here it is."

He thought about that for a second. "What about that black stuff? What is it?"

She gave another scan. "A mixture of human DNA and … something else. Unknown. But there's no cellular activity present, so whatever it is is dead."

Tobias held a hand to the side of his helmet. He was getting a headache from all of the impossibilities of this whole scenario. "Alright, so we've got a roughly seventy year old expedition that went wrong when they found something here, and ended up killing themselves; one body that was decapitated, two that look like they just froze to death, and one that is turned inside out, mangled, and still hasn't decomposed despite being older than any other human in history." He dropped his hands to his sides helplessly. "I know I've said it a few times now, but … just what the _hell_ happened here?!"

Taking a glance around, there honestly wasn't much else to look at. The two walls on either side surrounded the center of the room in a semi-circle, angling attention towards the far wall in front of them where some kind of shaft could be seen. Looking up through the hole above it, one could see that there was no roof; instead, on either side of the shaft, two large structural pylons stretched upward into the open air. They must have been the tops of the structure that KT had seen earlier.

KT seemed at a loss. "There's nothing else here. Geographical pings indicate that this chamber is the only area of any significance in the spire. There are several corridors far below us, but they're nothing more than access routes."

He was inclined to agree at first. If there was something important to do with this place, it'd be here; but there didn't appear to be anything more to it than the shaft and the bodies. He thought about that for a moment. "I was told to come here to get answers, right? That means that there must be a clue to them here."

"But where is it then?"

He began to get a better idea in his mind. "If you wanted to send a message to someone, but weren't sure that they'd understand it, you'd keep it simple. You'd try to make it something easy for them to understand. Maybe there's something here in plain sight, something we're not seeing yet."

Taking heed of that theory, the Titan began to inspect the sides of the room. He moved towards the shaft, wondering if there was anything else to it. Looking up at the tips of the pylons again, he saw that there was a platform that was situated between them. Confirming his theory, he looked at the sides of the shaft at his level to see that there were indented ridges in them. That meant that the platform used those ridges to guide itself up and down from level to level. Maybe there was a way to bring it back down?

KT looked at the curved wall on the left side. "Tobias, look at this." Hearing the urgency in her tone, he set his findings aside and walked over to what the Vanguard was indicating.

She pointed at engravings on the wall. "I thought this was just artwork, but perhaps it's writing? A dialect of the creators?"

He was only able to stare at the odd shapes of the ancient writing for a moment before something odd began to take place. It seemed like there was a strobe light going off in his mind, and he blinked rapidly in discomfort. KT didn't seem to notice anything, so it was definitely just him.

"If it is writing, though, I can't understand it. We don't have any records or evidence to help decipher the meaning-"

His eyes widened as he stared at the engravings again. With a startling realization, he saw that while the symbols had remained unchanged, he was able to _read_ them. "KT, I … I can see what it says!"

She looked at him sharply. "What? How-?"

He was just as shocked as her. "I don't know … maybe it has to do with the Inferno in me, maybe its abilities are returning in some capacity. But I can translate it."

She looked from him to the plaques on the wall. "Well, what does it say?"

The symbols flashed and glowed at him; not literally, but like a mirage. Trying to ignore the flickering appearance of them, he concentrated. "It says that a long time ago, the … the 'Architects' … lived a peaceful existence."

KT narrowed her lens cover. "Who are the Architects?"

He shrugged absentmindedly. "I think that's what the creators of this place called themselves. Anyway, it says that they lived a peaceful existence … until a discovery was made. They found something, or … something found them. Some kind of entity, or corruption … an ancient abomination beyond anything they'd ever seen. They called it the … the Amalgamation."

The Titan remained silent this time, and he swallowed hard before continuing.

"They couldn't fight it, or at least not very well. They were hunted down as other races died out, until they were the last remnant of resistance to it. They knew they couldn't beat it, so a plan was put into place." He followed the path of the engravings on the wall as the writing continued. "They created devices, massive technological marvels that could bend space and time …"

"The fold weapons," KT muttered in awe. "They were a defense network against this 'Amalgamation'. That's what they were designed for." Pieces of the puzzle were beginning to fall into place.

He continued, "They built a few of them on various planets throughout the cosmos for widespread effectiveness. Their goal was not to destroy the Amalgamation, but to contain it until there was a sure way to kill it. Somehow, they were able to specifically target some central part of it and affect it in some way."

"What did they do?" asked KT.

"They … oh, shit!" he whispered.

She looked at him in alarm. "What?"

"They transported it here, to this planet."

The Titan turned around rapidly, as though suddenly expecting to see some monstrosity behind them. Of course, there was still nothing but the corpses and the howls of the wind outside. "We need to get out of here, Tobias. If whatever it was is still here-"

He held up a hand to stop her. "Hold on, it seems that they managed to imprison it here. A time-lock, or something. They chose this place as the ideal cage for it; the weather and storms of the planet helped to prevent its 'corruption' from spreading as effectively or attacking them here … It can't be destroyed by any known means, so they wanted to weaken it as much as possible."

She noticed something odd on her sensors. That temporal energy she'd detected earlier was fluctuating. Why?

"There's something else here; they were only able to lock it away with the aid of a … a visitor?"

"What does that mean?" pondered KT. When she received no response, she looked to where he was standing. "Tobias?"

He was gone.


	12. The Calm Before

The edges of his vision began to blur, and an intense chill ran up his spine. He passed it off as being nervous. "It can't be destroyed by any known means, so they wanted to weaken it as much as possible."

That chill on his spine wouldn't go away, and his vision continued to deteriorate. Was he passing out?

"There's something else here; they were only able to lock it away with the help of a … a visitor?"

"What-" Unexpectedly, KT's question was cut short as his vision flared bright white, like a flash grenade had been thrown in front of him.

"KT? You alright?" Struggling to stop blinking, he looked to where his Titan was standing … or rather _had_ been standing, because she was no longer there.

He glanced around the room worriedly. "Kay? Hello?" She wasn't anywhere to be seen, and what was more was the fact that the room looked different. It wasn't as cold in here anymore, like heat was being properly maintained. And there was light; when he and KT had come here, it was nearing nightfall and the sun had been completely obstructed by clouds. But a quick check told him that despite the storms outside, sunlight was shining through the entrance.

Then he saw that the bodies had vanished. All three of them, gone without any evidence that they'd been there at all-

"Help! Is there anyone there?! Please!"

That was a voice, a _human_ voice. Who did it belong to?

It was unnerving, to say the least. Deciding to investigate further, he kept his Wingman forward as he walked back onto the bridge where he thought the sound was coming from.

The wind was still howling and ever-present, but as predicted, the sun was visible and light was shining much more heavily on the surrounding land. Snow was falling and billowing across the bridge from the strength of force against it, like a small arctic wind. The dropship was no longer on the bridge, but that wasn't to say it was unoccupied.

Three people were standing around, anxiously shifting from foot to foot as they looked around at the white-covered mountains surrounding the plains below the spire; two men and a woman. They were wearing some warm-parkas and miscellaneous gear, but not much else. Each of them had some kind of weapon on their backs, they looked to be automatic rifles.

Tobias was completely nonplussed. How were three humans standing right in front of him? Where was KT? What had just-

One of them, the woman, noticed him. She brushed some of her black hair out of her face to get a better view and confirm that she was truly seeing him. "Oh my God- look! What's going on?! Did you do this?"

He had no response, still shocked by the sight in front of him. She turned to the other two and said softly, "It looks like us, like a human!" Turning back to Tobias, she tried again, "Can you understand me? Who are you?"

He shook himself out of his silence. "Yeah, I can understand you. My name's Four. How … how are any of you here?"

She gestured at the other two with her. "We're on an expedition to this world, but something happened. Our ship and pilot are gone, and it's much brighter outside." She pointed at him. "Are you in charge?"

Apparently, she thought he was one of the beings that built this place. He shook his head. "No, I'm just a human like you. I don't know how I got here either."

Her face fell a bit. "You're like us? But … then who brought us here? What are you doing here?"

All great questions. He gestured towards himself and the interior of the spire. "I'm a Militia Pilot, I was investigating this planet when I was brought here. It's exactly where I was before, but … different."

She nodded vigorously. "That's what happened to us! We were investigating this structure when something surrounded us, some kind of light flashed … and we were here."

Tobias remembered back to what KT had said earlier; _I'm detecting temporal distortions, or at least the residue of temporal energy. It's old, but it's there._

He brought a hand to his helmet, reeling. "Oh, shit. I think we've just been shifted in time or something."

One of the men finally spoke up, "What the hell do you mean? Time travel?"

Tobias nodded slowly as he placed his Wingman back in its holster. "My Titan was talking about temporal distortions here on the planet-"

Now the other man interrupted as well. "A Titan? What are you doing with a Titan way out here, how could it analyze something like that? They're just machine labor!"

Now Tobias was confused. "What? Just machine labor?"

"They transport materials, haul lumber, heavy lift, come on. There's no way you don't know that if you're really a Titan Pilot."

The answer hit him like a ton of bricks. "Oh my … it's the time distortion! We're from different times, you haven't seen what Titans are nowadays- are you from the Manticore?!"

Recognition dawned in their eyes. "Yes, yes!" exclaimed the woman. "I'm Ellen, this is James and Marcus. We're the team that was sent down here as a scouting party!"

Marcus, a stocky man with a pretty well-defined stature, seemed a bit wary of Tobias. "So, how about you? You from one of the other ships of the expedition?"

He shook his head. "No, you guys were here nearly seventy years before me! Which is why I don't know-"

"Seventy years?!" yelped James. He had unkempt hair that fell into his eyes, making his expressions seem all the more wild. "You're from the future? Well then, what the hell happens to us? Do we ever make it out of here?!"

Tobias thought back to the three skeletons he'd seen in the spire, and realized how unprepared he was to answer this question. "Er-"

He was prevented from answering one way or another by the unexpected light show that came into being. The relatively clear sky allowed them to watch as some kind of large field began to surround the atmosphere, stretching from edge to edge of the horizon. He could only assume that it was covering the entirety of the planet.

All at once, the field began to tighten and focus in on the planet. It raced down from above, passing through them and the planet itself until there was an echoing boom deep below the ground, and a massive quake that shook the bridge beneath their feet. Some kind of rumbling deep below the ground could be heard, almost like it was … _roaring_.

"Christ, what the hell just happened?" Marcus exclaimed in surprise. "Was that an earthquake?"

Tobias shook his head. "Somehow, I don't think that was an earthquake. I don't know what that blue field just did, but-"

Suddenly, he doubled over as his vision swam before him. Ellen looked at him with concern. "You're glowing! The space around you is warping somehow, what's-"

That same flash from earlier reappeared, and he blinked his eyes rapidly to adjust them.

"Tobias?!"

He heard a familiar voice behind him, and turned around to see KT standing in the entryway of the spire. Her body language was one of fear and anxiety. "Where were you?! You just disappeared-"

"The time distortions!" he cried out. "They're still active, I was sent backwards I think …"

KT's lens cover widened. "When? Seventy years ago, when the Manticore was here?"

He shook his head. "There were people from the Manticore there, but they were just as confused as I was … I think we both got caught in the distortions, but I don't know how far back we were sent."

KT rotated her head around, analyzing their surroundings. "Well, the distortions are still fluctuating. It's not safe here, you could be taken again."

He shook his head. "We can't leave, not without concrete answers! There's gotta be something here that … that …"

KT looked at him sharply. "What?"

He tried to articulate his thought into words. "What if the answers _are_ here … but not _now?"_

She closed her optics cover frustratedly. "It would appear your obsession with danger has not diminished."

"Oh, come on." He walked back into the spire. "Let's see what else we can gather before I'm whisked away again."

Stepping back into the dark of the spire, he tried to avoid looking at the corpses. If his theory was right, then he didn't want to think about those poor people any more than he needed to. He looked over the wall he'd been reading from before he was taken, and tried to find his place.

KT's loud footsteps could be heard approaching from behind. "Is there anything else in there?"

He narrowed his eyes, attempting to concentrate. "Well, there's the 'visitor' part … it could mean me or the other three, knowing that these temporal distortions are happening. After that, there are some kind of instructions …" His eyes lit up excitedly. "It says to use the cartogram on the other wall to find the arrays! The array worlds are our only chance to stop it, and sever its connection to … its progenitor?"

The Vanguard was no longer next to him when he looked away from the wall. She was on the other side of the room, staring at more engravings, albeit more complex than the one he was currently examining. "If these are star charts, then they aren't any kind of charts I've seen. I have no idea how to read this."

He walked over to her, and was astonished at what he saw. "Whoa … these are so much more efficient than our charts, it's so much more specific-"

"How?" questioned KT. "These markings look more like a child's art project than a map."

He shook his head while he traced the grooves with his finger. "You're looking at it like a human would, a flat plane." He watched as the symbols on the cartogram lit up and jumped out at him, rotating themselves to reveal their secrets. "But this language isn't just characters, it's in at least three dimensions. It's hard to explain … imagine if the letter 'a' had something on its backside, something you couldn't normally see if you just looked at it head on. But if you were to take a model of it, and flip it over, then you'd see the rest of the meaning …"

KT was starting to get it now. "So, there's an entirely new dimension to this language than there is any other."

He nodded. "If regular maps can be laid flat, then this would be its opposite. It's like looking at a fishbowl, and its pointing exactly where we need to go."

She tried to peer at it herself, struggling to gain any inkling as to what he was seeing. "So where do we need to go?"

He gave a small sigh of consternation. "I don't know yet. I'd have to compare this to our own charts and see which parts line up-"

The edges of his vision began to warp, and the last thing he heard was KT say, "I'll get right on-" before the flash came and he felt himself snap back to reality.

"FOUR! Dammit, where are you?"

He turned and sprinted back out of the spire to the bridge. Once again, he was here with the three Manticore scouts.

"Hey! I'm here!"

They looked to the sound of his voice, he was forced to stop as James raised his weapon at him. "What the hell is going on?! Tell us!"

He held his hands out immediately, trying to defuse the situation. "Put the gun down, I am _not_ your enemy here!"

Ellen reached out to try and point the barrel of the gun aside. "James, put the gun down!"

"Where did you go?!" he shouted, his aim still trained on Tobias. "How do we know you're not behind this, dammit?!"

"I jumped again!" he yelled back. "The time distortions, there's a connection between here and however far in the future we all are!"

He knew that if push came to shove, he could take the man; but he had a feeling this could be resolved peacefully. Right now, the guy was scared and understandably looking for something to fault for that fear. He wasn't going to kill the man if he didn't have to.

After another moment, the man jerked the gun's aim away from Tobias. Inwardly, he let out a sigh of relief.

It didn't last long as another quake and roar shook the ground. "What is that?" Ellen called to Tobias, as she tried to keep her footing with both the quake and the wind threatening to knock them all down.

He shook his head. "I'm not sure, but it doesn't sound good whatever it … is …." His gaze began to stretch upward as he noticed something quite peculiar in the sky. Noticing the oddity, Ellen and the others did the same.

Streaking down from above were black specks that grew larger with every passing second. Tobias could only guess that they were coming from outside the atmosphere, but what were they?

That answer was soon to be seen as the specks were seen to be large black meteorites. They began to crash all around the plains surrounding the spire, some becoming embedded deep in snow while others exploded in clouds of black vapor.

"Get back!" he yelled, shepherding the others away from the edges of the bridge. He was afraid that one of the objects would smash into it and break it, but thankfully that didn't happen. Now that they were closer to the entrance of the spire, he felt a little safer. "Everyone alright?"

He heard a few mumbles of confirmation as they shakily checked themselves. Marcus seemed more curious than anything. "What are those things? It looks like they came from the upper atmosphere!"

Tobias nodded his agreement. "They're some kind of meteorite, but I have no idea why so many of them would fall at the same time. And after that blast field that went into the planet?" He shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine here."

Marcus gave a small hum as he thought to himself. "Well, it almost seems like they were summoned. Like that blue field brought them here, or triggered their arrival in some way."

Ice seemed to slowly spread through Tobias' mind as he remembered what he'd read on the wall inscriptions.

 _They brought it here, to this planet._

He felt his insides go numb. "You might be too correct for my liking, Marcus. Maybe there is something I know that you don't."

"What?" he asked as the other two listened intently.

"This planet used to hold something a long time ago, something was transported and imprisoned here." He gave a low whistle. "Well … right now, it's a long time ago."

On cue, another roar and quake shook the floor. He continued, "If something bad happens to you, you call for help. And I think this thing has done just that."

Looking over the sides of the bridge, he spied the debris of the many meteorites scattered throughout the plains. Some were too far buried under the snow to do anything, but the ones that weren't … shapes began to materialize within the smoke that rose from their casing.

"Those aren't meteorites," he breathed. "They're pods."

Those same shapes that had risen from the ashes of the pods were now moving towards the spire. He couldn't see them clearly, but they seemed to be fast enough. Deciding to opt for a closer look, he moved closer to the ledge of the bridge and turned on the magnification of his visor. Selecting a target to look at, he tried to figure out what the hell he was seeing.

It ran on two legs and had two arms, but other than that he saw no real similarities between it and any humanoids. It seemed to be black or a very dark grey in coloration, and almost rocky-looking. It jittered as though its movement was impaired by something, or that its bodily actions weren't quite in tune with its mind. He couldn't make a proper guess on how large it was, they were too far away for now. Maybe when they got closer, he'd-

Suddenly, his visor's view was filed with nothing but a dark grey. Had his ocular systems gone offline?

He had only time to register Ellen's scream behind him as he reduced his magnification before he saw what was really in front of him. Throwing himself backwards, he barely managed to avoid a large swipe from the creature's appendage as it screamed at him. It must have climbed up the side of the spire while he was looking at the other one.

"What is that?!" shouted Marcus, stepping away from where Tobias lay on his back and finally was given a full view.

Its skin was blackened and looked to be somewhat like a shell, giving it the appearance of a burn victim. Its complexion was composed of what looked to be a chitin-like material covering the entirety of its surface. Cracks and seams ran through it, glowing ever so slightly orange, as though its insides were on fire.

It screamed again in challenge, and Tobias scooted backwards in shock. Its cry was horrifyingly high pitched and guttural, like a person choking or gargling as they shrieked. He noticed that, though it had swiped at him with one horribly deformed arm, its other arm was not even a proper appendage; instead, it seemed to be a stump that widened out until it became a hole, and sharp rock-like teeth were fitted around the inner rim of it. If he had to take a guess, he'd have said that the teeth were made from bone or something similar.

The second mouth on its arm was what it used to strike at him now, and he rolled aside to avoid being snagged in its grasp. It reached back for a second attempt, but gunfire rang out from behind him and the creature was blasted off the side from the impact of the bullets.

Not wasting any time, he hurriedly stood up to see Ellen behind him with her rifle, its barrel smoking. "What do we do?!"

He motioned for them to take places around the entrance to the spire. "We need to form a perimeter around here! It's our best chance!"

He neglected to tell them that the perimeter was not for their safety, otherwise he'd have them taken shelter in the spire; it was to keep the creatures from entering. He had a feeling that this facility was important to whatever the Architects had done to the Amalgamation's integral component; if these things were here, it was probably because they needed to destroy the spire, and he couldn't let that happen.

As awful as it was, the other three were expendable.

* * *

 _ **A/N: This chapter was actually going to be much longer, but considering that up to here is already over 3,000 words, I figured that I might as well release this much of it, and finish off writing the other half so that you guys get more chapters as soon as possible. Otherwise, you'd have had to wait another few days for me to write the next two thousand or so words that would be needed to finish it off.**_

 _ **Remember to follow, favorite, and review! I love reading your thoughts each chapter.**_

 _ **Until the next time,**_

 _ **\- Matteoarts**_


	13. The Storm

Another one of the creatures came up over the far end of the bridge. This one was even more grotesque; rather than moving on two legs, it had bent its entire shape forward and twisted its limbs. Each of its arms and legs had been shaped to disproportionate points, and it skittered forward like a massive spider.

Tobias didn't hesitate to pull his Wingman from its holster and start unloading. One of his bullets caught it in its front 'leg', and it paused for a moment to give a shrill shriek of anger.

The other three near him took the cue to fire as well, and began to pepper its front with spent ammunition. Both of its front legs were nearly torn apart by the bullets, and the shell-like substance cracked until there was no more tissue holding the pieces together. They separated, and the creature slipped forward on the puddle of reddish-orange liquid spilling from its severed limbs.

The thing continued to twitch for a few more moments before falling silent. They didn't have time to focus on it, however, as more creatures continued to haul themselves over the lip of the bridge and onto the main platform. Misshapen and disturbing, they made just as much of an assault on Tobias' mind as they did the spire. He had no qualms about shooting them down, whatever they were.

More pods continued to fall around the spire, and he looked up on a whim to see where they were coming from. There was nothing that he could see for an origin point; they seemed to just drop into existence. So as far as he could tell, there wouldn't be any shortage to their opponents any time soon.

But as he looked up, something else seemed to appear; a bright flash pulsed in the sky, and very faintly he could see the outlines of what looked to be large ships in orbit.

" _What the hell?!"_ came a crackling voice through his helmet speakers. It must have been on an open channel.

Ellen looked up, saw what he was seeing, and gasped. "Those are ships from the expedition!" She pressed a button on a device clipped to the collar of her coat as the others continued to fight. "Hello? This is Ellen Parker of the Manticore! Do you read?"

There was just a moment's pause before the reply came. _"This is the Manticore! We're reading you, Ellen. Something surrounded us and the Cyclops, and we can detect your signals again. All of the other ships are gone- what the hell just happened?!"_

"I'm not sure exactly," she admitted, "but there's another person with us who claims that there are time distortions affecting this planet! We've been shifted in time, and we're being engaged by hostiles! It's not safe here!"

As if to drive her point home, Marcus gave a loud yell as he mowed down several of the charred-looking creatures with one of his last magazines of ammo. The response was swift. _"Hold your position, we're getting a visual on your location."_

Another few seconds of mindless fighting went by before he heard several people on the other end of the connection gasp. _"Jesus, what the hell are those things?"_

"Those things," Tobias interrupted through his own connection, "are trying to kill us at the moment. A little help would be nice!"

" _Who are you? Where the hell did you come-"_

He groaned frustratedly. "Oh, for God's- _fire on the goddamn things!_ We don't have time to argue about this!" He was amazed at how often people failed under pressure because of unforeseen circumstances. The ability to adapt was a necessary one on the frontier.

There was hesitation on the other end for a moment before he heard a confirmation. _"Launching missile salvos. Target the plains around the structure!"_

Sure enough, bright orange flares of light could be seen arcing down from the sky at a considerable speed. The creatures still stuck in the plains didn't have a chance as the missiles decimated their forces. Chunks of blackened limbs were thrown everywhere, and orange liquid spewed onto the otherwise white snow.

Suddenly, a new voice was heard on the comms. _"This is the Cyclops, something just hit us! It's ruptured our hull, and it released something- oh, God! It's one of those things, shoot it!"_

He could do nothing as he heard the anguished screams of those on the comms, as they were presumably massacred by the creature onboard. _"No! NO! NOOO- AGGGGHHHH-"_

He terminated the connection, unwilling to hear any more. Beside him, James was turning white with fear. "What the hell is going on up there?"

Tobias tried to focus on taking down every one of these bastards as he explained monotonously, "Those pods seem to be coming from some other source; one of them must have been directed to crash into the Cyclops, and now it's killing the crew."

"Oh, God …" mumbled James nauseously.

"Manticore," Tobias called out, "Keep your shields up and watch for any unusual objects!"

It was hard to imagine, with all the chaos surrounding them and the events that had transpired in such rapid succession, that it had only been a few minutes or so that they'd been fighting these creatures. It felt like hours to Tobias, as though this was all he'd ever known. Horrific image after horrific image filled his mind as he gunned down these monstrosities of twisted limbs and burned flesh. One of the things was getting a little close-

 _Flash._

He fired into emptiness, hearing the echo of the Wingman pierce the still air. He swiveled his head left and right, searching for another target.

"Tobias?!"

He spun around to see KT coming out of the spire to the bridge where he stood. "What are you doing out here? What are you shooting at?"

"There's these _things-_ " he spat with urgency in his tone. "They have us surrounded!"

"What things?" she asked in a soothing tone. He could tell she was worried about him, and trying to calm him down.

He didn't have time for calm. "I think that they're-"

 _Flash._

KT was gone, replaced with a view of Ellen, Marcus, and James where she'd stood. Ellen looked at him, her eyes widening. "Watch out!"

Suddenly, he was grabbed from behind and thrown backwards towards the end of the bridge. Sliding on his back, he managed to stop himself and looked to see a faceless creature lumbering towards him. It seemed normal enough, except that its arms widened and lengthened further than they should, each of its finger-like digits nearly a foot in length and with sharpened edges.

It stabbed a hand down into the ground next to him as he narrowly avoided it by rolling slightly to the left. As it reached back for another strike, he unloaded his gun into its chest, shouting in rage and terror as he did so-

 _Flash._

The monster was gone, and it looked like he was back in his own time again. But KT wasn't there, despite the planet now looking as dead as it did when he and she had come here.

"Hey, who the hell are you?"

He turned toward the source of the noise, and found himself looking at the dropship on the bridge; except now it wasn't destroyed, and there was a pilot sitting inside. The pilot was staring at him as he sat on the bridge, trying to contemplate exactly what was going on.

He realized that this was the time of the expedition, seventy years before him and KT; this was Ellen, James, and Marcus' pilot. It seemed that the flashes and time distortions were getting faster, with less time in between each one.

Taking advantage of what he hoped was a good theory, he stood up and jogged a few meters toward the entrance of the spire.

The pilot seemed to be talking on the comms channel back with the other ships in orbit, sans Manticore and Cyclops. "I've got an unknown down here on the bridge of the structure. Everyone down here's just flickering in and out of being-"

 _Flash._

Recognizing his surroundings again, he turned to see the creature that had been attacking him moments before, now several meters away as it crumpled to the ground, its orange goo seeping from its chest. Behind him, he heard a small gasp of surprise.

"Four?! But you were just-"

He cut off Ellen's questions. "Time distortions, they're getting faster! Soon, I'm sure you guys will be affected too!"

Without warning, another flash appeared in the sky and he looked up to see that the Manticore and Cyclops were now gone. "See! I'm sure that-"

"Oh God!" whispered Ellen, "The Cyclops has one of those things on board!"

Realizing what Ellen was worried about, he gave a heavy sigh. "When you guys get back, you have to tell the Manticore to shoot it down. It's the only way to stop it from possibly spreading!"

James' and Ellen's mouth opened wide in shock, but Marcus just set his mouth in a thin line; he knew what had to be done. "Understood."

Tobias faced away from them again to see that there wasn't any immediate threat anymore. It seemed that the creatures were gone.

"Did … did we win?" asked Ellen tentatively. Tobias narrowed his eyes.

"This doesn't make sense. One moment there's dozens of them, and now that the missiles are gone, there's not?" He looked around with his Wingman leveled in front of him. He didn't like this. "Everyone, into the spire."

They obeyed without argument, and each of them filed into the safety of its walls. He looked around at each of their scared faces, and tried to say something reassuring. "Alright … now, what we need to do is-"

There was another flash without warning, and at first he assumed that he'd jumped again. But as he opened his eyes, he saw that they were gone. Or, most of them.

"What the hell?!" cried James, looking around for Marcus and Ellen. "Where'd they go?"

"They must have jumped," muttered Tobias, glad at least that they'd made it out relatively safely. "We're left behind. We just need to wait until another distortion takes us-"

"Oh, to hell with this!" yelled James, throwing his rifle on the ground. "This whole expedition has gone to hell! We might as well already be there, what with these bullshit time distortions and whatever the hell those things are-"

"Hey!" Tobias cut him off loudly. "Get a grip. You survive by keeping a level head, not by giving up."

James stared angrily at Tobias for a moment before another flash interrupted whatever thoughts either of them were thinking. But this wasn't a disorienting flash that obscured your whole vision, not a time distortion; it was simply a light that came into being outside on the bridge. Both of their gazes snapped towards it, and they moved to investigate with James picking his rifle back up as they did.

On the very end of the bridge, a blue rift of sorts had appeared in mid-air. It was positioned between two some kind of apparent device that Tobias had at first assumed was decorative; with two pylons roughly three meters apart from each other, and a platform beneath them, it seemed that they actually served a functioning purpose other than simply being an observation deck.

The rift in question was a spherical, or at least elliptical opening in the air, one that shone bluish white and appeared to be more gaseous than either liquid or solid. They only stared at it for a few seconds before something came spilling onto the ground. James looked like this was the straw that broke the camel's back, and he raised his weapon. Tobias quickly held out a hand to stop him, and hopefully calm the man down as he knelt down to see what it was.

It was some type of being; the creatures they'd been fighting seemed to share a resemblance with it, but this one seemed pure, as though it wasn't corrupted by whatever force had twisted the others' bodies. It was much larger than a human, though it still retained a similar humanoid shape. It was all white in color, and at first he thought it was just hairless flesh; but upon closer inspection he found that it's 'skin' was not flesh, but some other kind of material; its sheen reminded him of plastic, but it still looked too soft to be quite that.

As he watched, it slowly lifted its head off the ground, and stared at them. It had no face or other features, just a smooth wall where eyes, nose, and mouth would be. Somehow, Tobias sensed that this thing didn't need eyes to see them clearly. Its gaze lingered onto him, where it remained.

 _Finally, we meet._

It did not speak verbally, but rather in their minds; evidently, it was advanced enough to have transcended physical speech limitations. He nodded. "You're one of the Architects, aren't you?"

"Architects?" James muttered questioningly, but he paid him no mind.

 _Yes. You and I have spoken before, Tobias._

With a start, he realized that he did know the voice that was speaking to him. It was so familiar, he should have recognized it sooner.

"You were the Inferno before me."

It nodded. _For you, much time has passed since we spoke clearly to one another. I have influenced your dreams since then, guiding you here, but for me it has only been minutes since last we spoke._

That shocked Tobias a little. It had been over two and a half years now that he'd first learned of the Inferno, and become it in order to keep the IMC from pillaging its secrets.

Despite its lack of facial features, he felt like the Architect was almost looking at him with something akin to pride in its gaze. _You have done well; you have grown strong, and kept your heart pure. I am sorry that I gave you such a burden to bear, but I am pleased to see how well you carry it._

It tried to stand, but collapsed back on the ground before reaching its full height. It was then that Tobias noticed the white and golden colored ichor dripping from a wound on its abdomen. "Are you alright?"

Shaking its head, it remained on the ground for a few moments. _There is no time to waste concern on my health. You must-_

Without warning, James screamed. Tobias quickly turned to see that a black tendril had impaled him from behind, and burst through his stomach. Gripping the edge of his wound, it yanked him backwards towards a creature, seemingly the last one that had been stalking them and waiting for an opportunity to strike. Leaping into action, he ran towards it with every intention of saving James.

The creature, however, had other plans. Shooting another tendril towards Tobias, he dodged its spear-like head. Unfortunately, it grabbed his foot and flipped him onto his back before pulling him towards it. The Wingman skittered a few feet away, towards the thing.

He was helpless as he watched the creature's other tendril retract from James as the man lay crying out for help on his back. With a whip like motion, it flayed his chest open. James screamed in agony as blood spurted from the laceration, and his insides were exposed to the cold, biting air of the planet. Leaning over James, the thing loomed its bulbous head over his wound and began to vomit its orange blood-like liquid into his open chest cavity. James fell silent as the pain became too much, and he simply passed out or died; Tobias couldn't tell which.

The creature then turned its attention to Tobias as he was pulled ever closer, and he hurriedly scrabbled his hands towards his Wingman off to the left and finally equal with his position. He didn't have time to switch hands, which meant that he was trying to aim it with just his thumb and middle finger on the handle as his last remaining finger on that hand pulled the trigger. The recoil was nearly enough to knock the gun out of his hands without his other two fingers to balance it, but he held on tight and continued to pump round after round into it.

Orange goo splattered his armor, and the thing roared angrily. Gargling in pain as its nervous system slowly shut down, the creature fell on its side and gave one last heave before becoming still.

Looking at the scene before him in horror, Tobias couldn't stop shaking. He grasped the tendril wrapped around his foot, and hastily yanked it off of him. He wanted out, he wanted out, he wanted out-

 _Tobias!_

He stopped to look back at the Architect, now weakly standing on its legs. It took one shaky step after another towards him, trying to stay upright. _Are you alright?_

He was about to reply that no, he wasn't nearly alright, but he was stopped by an odd noise. He heard some kind of cracking from behind him, like something brittle was splintering. Turning back around, he almost wished he hadn't.

James' skin was darkening, converting itself from its usual pink and soft fleshiness to the black and hardened chitin-like material he'd seen on the creatures. It continued to shape and molt itself, cracking as it did so. James body began to shake violently, like he was having a seizure. His arms, now completely corrupted, began to alter themselves more; his hands grew stiff as they also grew in size. His nails fell out as the tips of his finger bones lengthened into points and burst through the skin covering them. Red blood slowly began to stop dripping from his wounds as it was replaced with that orange substance that was doing this to him.

Horrifically, what was once James tried to rise from its position of death, and stood upon its legs. His left arm had not transitioned well, and was falling apart at the elbow. With a final snap from a severed piece of tissue, it fell away. Not missing a beat, the bone from within the now exposed flesh began to grow and sharpen, and the edge of it forced itself out through the remaining muscle until it stood out like an makeshift knife. Meanwhile, the flaps of now charred skin from the chest laceration began to move and morph as small protrusions began to grow from the sides. They sharpened into canine-like teeth, turning the former chest wound into a horrific sideways mouth.

Hissing with fury, it charged at him. Acting quickly, he rolled away and onto his feet. Swapping the Wingman into his right hand, he took several shots but missed each one. It swiped at him with the clawed fingers on its right hand, and he narrowly avoided being sliced open. Howling, the thing pounced forward and knocked Tobias to the ground. His vision swam from the impact of his head on the ground, and he heard a faint ringing noise in his ears.

The thing wasn't quite steady on his chest however, and he drowsily positioned his feet under it. Forcing them out, he kicked it away with quite a large amount of force, and it landed-

 _Flash._

-on the side door of the dropship, causing it to lurch slightly on its landing gear. The pilot, still sitting in the dropship, cried out, "What the hell is that thing?!"

Hearing the noise of potential prey, the creature shifted focus onto the ship and punched its arm into the side door. The locking mechanism crushed under the impact, and the door slid open with ease. With it clambering inside, Tobias could do nothing but look around blearily as he heard the pilot scream in terror. "OH GOD! NO, NO! NO-"

The pilot's voice abruptly cut off, and red splattered the inside of the cockpit's window.

"Four?!" he heard a woman's voice call out, and he looked towards the spire to see both Ellen and Marcus standing near the entrance. Only Marcus was armed; either Ellen had run out of ammo, or he had and she'd given him the gun.

Once again, the voice provided suitable stimuli to trigger the creature's senses, and it leapt through the glass of the dropship with a shattering noise. The rash decision to leap headfirst pretty much tore its lower jaw off, and it shook the now-useless chunk of its head free from the one string of tissue holding it in place. Held in its right arm was the head of the pilot, which it causally threw off the side of the bridge before moving towards Ellen and Marcus. They jerked back in fear, and fled to the interior of the spire.

Groggily, Tobias stood up and ran towards them to help. He could hear Ellen scream in fear as it approached, and he charged in.

They were cornered against the right wall, and Marcus shot it with what was left of his ammo. Bringing a deformed arm down, it smacked the gun out of his hands and moved in for the kill.

Rushing forward, Tobias grabbed what was left of the back of James parka, and yanked it backwards. It stumbled awkwardly before falling on its back in the center of the room. Its limbs twitched and jittered, unsure of what movement coordinated what. It began to rise before Tobias shouted and pulled the trigger of the Wingman.

The bullet's aim was true, and it entered easily into the skull of what had once been James. There was no more twitching, no more jerky movement; it simply fell lifelessly to the floor.

He stared at the thing as he heaved his chest in adrenaline, dragging in deep breaths. Behind him he heard Ellen try to talk with him. "Four?"

He couldn't process anything right now, his mind was too numb to hold a conversation. He could only stand there, with his hand and gun still outstretched and aimed at its head as he heard her recognize the small, tattered pieces of clothing still left on its body. "Is that … is James … ?"

She began to cry softly as he still stood, the one person still standing after the horror they'd all gone through.

 _Flash._

"What … Tobias?"

He heard the heavy footsteps of his Titan approach him, and she analyzed his current position with his gun held at a congruent angle with the corpse's head. She said nothing, obviously trying to piece together what had happened concerning the skeleton, Tobias, and the time distortions.

He stared at what was now the seventy year old corpse of the James-thing, just as dead now as when he'd killed it seventy years ago. He finally understood the full impact of the time distortions, and how they could come full circle.

Holstering his gun slowly, he looked at KT. The Vanguard was staring right back at him with worry in her gaze. He felt like she was trying to decide what was best to say in this situation, but she couldn't quite nail it down. The correct answer was that there was nothing she could say to make this better. He'd only known those three of the Manticore as skeletons before he'd been time shifted. Now, he'd saved two of them from the last, killed him, and then apparently they'd frozen to death or something as evidenced by their decomposed skeletons on the right wall of the room, rendering his previous action useless.

"… Fuck."

He closed his eyes, trying to stem the flow of terrible imagery that played in his mind. There wasn't much else he could do or say.

He continued to stare at the corpse as KT watched him, wondering how much more he could endure before he broke.

* * *

 _ **A/N: Getting close to the end …**_

… _**of this arc.**_

 _ **Sorry, couldn't help but tease you a bit there. No, we're not yet close to the end of Tempest. I think that it's actually going to end up having around 20 chapter, pretty much the same as Inferno, which I'm somewhat surprised about. I didn't expect it to be as long, but here we are.**_

 _ **As always, please follow, favorite, and review! I love reading your thoughts, I appreciate every last one.**_

 _ **Until the next-**_

 _ **01100001 01101101 01100001 01101100 01100111 01100001 01101101 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101101 01101001 01101110 01100111**_


	14. Reality of the Situation

"Tobias?" KT tentatively called his name. "Tobias, come to me. It's alright, I'm here."

He barely registered anything she was saying at this point; to him, it was all white noise. There wasn't anything he could hear other than static in his mind, a garbled sound that buzzed in his head like an incessant insect.

"Listen to me. You're in danger of being taken for every moment we stay, I need you to come here."

Slowly, he looked at her. She nodded her cylindrical head encouragingly. "That's it, come on."

After a few moments, he took a shaky step towards her. Then another. And another.

"Alright, let's get you … _no-!"_

 _Flash._

KT's cry was cut off as yet another distortion swallowed him up, and spat him back into the past. He looked around, at a loss for what to do. Was this it? For him to constantly switch between times until he died from either one of those things or insanity?

 _Tobias!_

Hearing the familiar voice in his head, he turned to look at the entrance to the spire. Outside on the bridge, the Architect was still standing, though barely. He watched as the white being stumbled for a moment, evidently weakened from the wounds on its chest.

The sight of the vulnerable entity kicked him into gear. Here, it was the closest thing he had to an ally. He ran outside, positioning himself under the weaker side of the Architect, and allowing it to lean on him for support. "You're in worse shape than I thought." Its proportionately thin arms wrapped around him for support, and he adjusted himself to the side for the surprising curvature of its large figure and hips. Was it female? Or, whatever passed for a feminine Architect?

It waved him aside. _As I said, there is no time to waste on my health. Time is short, we must-_

It seized up violently for a moment, the pain causing it to tense up and grip its chest tightly. That same golden-white liquid gushing from its chest began to fill the cracks between its fingers, dripping through the seams and onto the bridge. Unfortunately, there wasn't much Tobias knew in the manner of alien first aid.

After a moment, it resumed its previous stance. _We must activate the spire._

Assisting the Architect the rest of the way, Tobias questioned it as they entered the facility. "What are these things? Are they the Amalgamation?"

The Architect shook his head. _No. The Amalgamation is not the creatures, it is an event caused by them; one that is still a potential reality if you do not stop them._

"And what's that?"

 _The abominations spread by converting others into creatures like them, as you saw with the other human._ Inwardly, Tobias winced at being reminded of James' fate. _They continue to add mass to their collective until eventually they will have consumed all organic matter in the galaxy, probably farther._

That froze Tobias in place. "What do you mean, 'all organic matter'?"

As they reached the shaft that he'd noticed in the other time, the Architect pressed his hand against the wall next to it. It glowed a warm blue color, obviously sensing the print. _We became aware of them millions of years ago as we watched them topple far off civilizations, ones we thought were long out of reach._

Its tone became venomous. _But they are nothing if not patient; traveling for millions of years, destroying everything in their path there came a time when we came face to face with it. Now, we are on the verge of extinction as well. It will continue to feed until there is nothing left to feed on; they will become an Amalgamation of every living creature in observable space. But we have a plan._

An electric humming could be heard as a blue beam appeared in the middle of the shaft, stretching high above between the pylons that rose from the spire's top. A platform rose from the lower levels, and stopped in front of them. Weakly, the Architect stepped onto it before collapsing to the ground in a sitting position. Tobias rushed to its side.

"Hey, don't give up on me yet."

 _Death is not so easily staved off, my friend._

He shook his head. "Well, you're not dead yet. So that's something." He tried to think of ways to keep the Architect talking and awake. "You know, I've never known what your name was, other than 'Inferno'. Do you have one?"

It paused for a moment, giving thought to his question. _I communicate through means far above your own; my kind do not have a language based on sound; in your tongue, I suppose it would be akin to 'Al'cor'."_

Kind of a long winded answer for a short question, but he wasn't going to judge the being for being wordy as he was moments from dying. " 'Al'cor.' Definitely sounds alien. I'm just glad that it wasn't 'Bob' or something," he joked.

Al'cor said nothing, obviously not understanding.

He shook his head. "Never mind, back to the task at hand. What's this plan?"

Al'cor nodded. _The Amalgamates share one mind across billions of their numbers. That mind is what directs them, what gives them life. We call it the Seed._

"The Seed?"

 _We have ascertained their nature. The Amalgamates are not from our realm; the Seed was implanted into it, forced into our reality like a pregnancy. As it spreads, it grows. It evolves, it expands, and finally it transcends its physical limitations. It will be able to 'reproduce' and create another Seed which it will then send into a new realm, where the cycle will continue._

The platform began to rise up the shaft, using the beam like an elevator cable as Tobias stood there overwhelmed with information to process. It was a hell of a lot to take in. "How long has this thing been around?"

 _Since before my kind. Perhaps billions of years, perhaps since before the conception of our universe itself. In any matter, we know this; it has not yet been defeated in any other reality. Otherwise, it would not be here._

That was a horrifying aspect to consider; the Amalgamation had to have happened somewhere else for the Seed to have been shoved into their own universe, and the same went for that previous iteration. This enemy had no weakness, no limit to its numbers, and it had potentially been completing this cycle for billions of years, maybe even longer depending on how many other universes existed.

Assuming that their reality wasn't the first, and considering that the observable universe was estimated to be roughly fourteen billion years old, that meant that the possibilities were endless. Maybe they were the second; maybe they were just one of hundreds that had been consumed already. This shit could be as old as the universe, or hundreds of billions years older. That amount of time was incomprehensible to a human, with lives extending to only a hundred or so; nothing more than half a blink in the length of eternity.

He swallowed hard. "So, about that plan to stop it?"

 _If the Seed controls every Amalgamate, then the Seed is what must be targeted. However, it cannot be killed through normal means._ Al'cor seemed to deflate somewhat as they spoke the next part, the platform coming to a stop high in the air. Up here, Tobias became more nervous about their current location; it didn't seem like there was anything preventing him from falling off, and the winds were still quite vicious.

 _Though its form is physical, its mind is tethered to a place outside our universe; that is what keeps it from dying. You can't kill a thought, or an idea. This whole monstrosity is one massive abstraction, some mad entity's horrific concept of a species, incepting itself into reality after reality. The only way to destroy it is to sever its connection to whatever other counterpart there is in the void outside our reality. The Seed is a parasitic embryo, and that connection is a metaphysical umbilical cord._

Tobias finally felt that he understood. "That's what the array worlds are for; to sever its inter-dimensional connection?"

Al'cor shook in pain again, and he heard some kind of echo of static in his mind; likely the equivalent of a gasp or cry in the Architect's unique language. _Yes. We call it the Tempest. When all of the arrays are activated, they will form a reality-bomb. It will destroy anything that transcends the limits of our realm, including the Seed's bond with its other. Once that is gone, the Seed will die._

Finally, he was getting some answers. "So, where is the Seed?"

A roar rang out again, far beneath the ground of the planet, and suddenly Tobias felt his head being split apart. There was something else _in_ his mind with him, some other presence probing and cutting through his being, probing him. He lost control of all bodily functions as pain overwhelmed him and there was nothing but the screaming void in his head.

 _ **JOIN US. JOIN US.**_

It wasn't one voice talking to him; it was the distorted, screaming voices of billions that had fallen to the Amalgamates, crackling with hoarse sounds as though their throats were splintering apart from the very effort of speaking.

 _ **WE HAVE CONSUMED ALL. ONE IS ALL, AND ALL ARE ONE.**_

 _ **JOIN US. JOIN US.**_

 _Tobias!_

He opened his eyes to see that he was dangling off the edge of the platform, only kept from falling off by Al'cor's hand wrapped around his wrist. The Architect was weak, but they were using the last reserves of their energy to keep him from falling off. Reaching his other hand up, he quickly grasped the edge of the platform and pulled himself onto it.

Rolling onto their back, Al'cor looked exhausted. _We must activate the Spire quickly!_

Tobias was at a loss for words. "That- that's the Seed? It's in the planet?!"

 _We transported it here with what you call, 'fold weapons'. We have used them and their Arks to bend space, and place it in the core of this world so we know where it is. Now, the Arks must fulfill their second purpose._ They pointed to a small pedestal in the middle of the platform, with an angled pad at the top. _The Inferno must be the one to activate them, and send the Seed away._

"You can't do it?"

Al'cor shook their head. _I have transferred the power of the Inferno within me to the orb that you will find in many millions of years, ensuring our meeting and that this moment can happen. You are the one needed to activate it; it is up to you._

That wording caught him off guard. "Why wouldn't I do it?"

Al'cor stared at him, and he could feel nothing but regretful feelings and sorrow from them in the explanation that followed. _The array worlds are not yet ready. We need to construct them properly, to ensure humanity and the rest of the universe's survival in the future; but we need time. The Amalgamation is nearly at hand here, extinction is at our door. We need to send the Seed far away into the future where its mind cannot control the current Amalgamates, to give us ample opportunity to have the array worlds ready for you in your time._

It was then that Tobias understood the horror of his task at hand. "You want me … to send it to my own time?"

Al'cor sadly stared at him. _It is your choice._

"Well, what happens if I don't?"

 _The array worlds will never be finished. The Amalgamates will wipe us out here, the Seed will have consumed the last resistance against it and proceed to evolve before sending its offspring into the next universe to harvest. You will cease to be, as humanity will never evolve far enough before being feasted upon. Instead, all life will have been added to the mass of the Amalgamation._

Tobias clenched his fists. "Doesn't sound like I have a choice."

 _We needed you to see that it is necessary. If we did not care for the greater good, we would have sent it to the future long after our race had died out and it would not affect us. But we cherish life, and this is the only way to prevent the absolute destruction of our universe._

The Architect had truth to their words; it was harsh, but this was the only way. He took a few deep breaths, then looked at Al'cor. "Here, come with me back to my time! I can get you help, and you can assist me as I try to find the arrays-"

They were already shaking their head. _The portal I came through should be set to take you to the first array world in your time; use it._

"But-"

Again, it almost seemed like the Architect was beaming at him in spite of the situation. _Save yourself. I am not afraid of death, only that mine will have meant nothing. I have spent my last moments preparing you for your destiny, and laying the groundwork for humanity's survival. I hope it is enough._

With that, Al'cor fell onto their back. They weren't dead, but it looked like they were utterly exhausted from their wounds and distress. They were near death, or unconscious, or both. In any matter, he was alone once again.

He thought about that line; _save yourself._ How many times had he put himself before others in the IMC? How many times had he put his own skin first? Was that who he still was, deep down? Or was he a changed man?

There was no doubt about it; he wasn't going to let Al'cor die here if he could help it.

He remembered the Manticore and the Cyclops appearing in the sky; they had been entire ships, taken with everyone on board. Maybe, time distortions affected their target as well as anything else in close proximity with them. After all, he'd have lost his suit the first time he'd jumped if that weren't the case, it's not like it was a part of his body. Did that mean he could take something with him?

It was worth a shot; he hadn't seen anything concrete in the future that said Al'cor was dead. Ellen, Marcus, and James' skeletons had proven that there was no saving them, but maybe there was an exception to be found here.

Another quake rumbled deep in the core, and he looked around. He saw several of the Amalgamates clawing out of the snow, where their pods had buried themselves deep in the powder. Soon, they'd be free and able to climb up here.

He took a few deep breaths, steeling himself for what needed to be done. Grasping Al'cor's arm tightly in his grip, he moved to the pedestal and placed his other hand above it. With one final bout of courage to forgive himself for this, he activated the spire.

The same beam that ran through the spire shot into space, high above the planet. After a few seconds, several other beams traveling from the far off reaches of space connected with it, and shoved it back down. The beam accelerated downward, losing hight rapidly until it disappeared down below, presumable into a duct that led to the core of the planet where the seed was.

The quake stopped in its midst, and the Amalgamates fell over far below, their collective mind no longer able to control them. Soon, they'd be buried underneath the ice and wind, and forgotten.

As his vision began to deteriorate to a blinding white at the edges of his sight, Tobias sighed. "I just bought you all a lot of time. Better make it worth it."

 _Flash._

He blinked a few times, adjusting to the winds and darkness once again, as nightfall had finally taken over the sky. He was back in his own time, hopefully for good this time.

Moving slightly, he was surprised that he was being weighed down by something. Glancing to his right, he saw that Al'cor was still alongside him, their arm still being held by his own. He felt his heart leap with excitement for a moment; at the very least, he'd managed to save one person.

They were still on the platform, frozen high above the spire's pylons. He looked down, and called out. "KT!"

There was a pause, and then he saw a blue Vanguard walk onto the bridge from the spire's inside. She spoke to him through their neural link, _Tobias? How did you get up there?_

"Long story," he said, postponing the conversation. "Right now, we need to get-"

A massive quake suddenly shook the planet, as something massive in the core of it vibrated angrily. KT looked around from her position on the bridge below. _What the hell was that?!_

"Shit," he muttered under his breath, "we need to get out of here _now."_

Suddenly, he saw something streaking down towards the mountains, far off in the distance. It almost looked like one of the pods, but how would that be possible? There were no Amalgamates in this time, no sources to draw from-

Either way, he couldn't waste time figuring out _how_ when he needed to figure out _what to do about it,_ as he saw more pods falling from high above, these ones aimed a bit more directly than the last.

Most of them missed the spire, but one came to close and managed to crash right through one of the pylons holding up the platform he and Al'cor were on. Evidently, despite its durability, it wasn't invincible.

Without half of its support, the platform tilted and forced Tobias and Al'cor to slide off. He made sure to hold on tight to the Architect as they fell, brainstorming ideas. Fortunately, his left arm was free of Al'cor's weight, and he aimed it at the bridge below them. He shot his grappling hook at its side, feeling satisfaction as he heard it lock in on the edge near KT's feet. They plummeted past, but the cable slowed them down without snapping his arm, then began to pull them up.

KT yanked the hook out of the bridge, and began to pull them up herself. Once they were safely on the bridge, Tobias began to pull Al'cor towards the portal on the end of the bridge. KT gently picked them up herself, and then stared at him. "Who or what is this?"

"That," he explained, "is the person who made any of this possible. We need to get to the rift at the end of the bridge, it will take us to the first array wor-"

He was cut off in the middle of his sentence as a pod crashed through the bridge near its base, practically severing its connection to the spire. There was a lurch, a groan of metal, and then the ground was yanked out from under them.

Tobias couldn't see anything but spinning snowfall and black skies as he tumbled through the air. He tried to get a bearing on his orientation so he could land properly-

 _Whump._ He landed hard on his side in the massive piles of snow below. Fortunately, it was deep enough to keep him from majorly injuring himself. Popping back above the top layer of snow, he looked around at his surroundings; debris from the bridge was everywhere, making it hard to see where his metal Titan was. "KT?! Kay!"

A blue eye shone out of the darkness to his right, and he made his way over to her. She walked over to him, the Architect still clutched safely in her hands. "I'm fine, it's not the first time we've fallen off a cliff."

He looked around. "The portal is gone, we can't use it to get out of here." He scanned the scene before spying a much larger piece of debris, still relatively undamaged. "The ship! It's our only ticket off of this rock. We need to boot it up and get them on board." He pointed to Al'cor, signifying their importance. KT's hull opened, and he hopped in to reduce the load. The transition of control was smooth, and then he was Piloting her. He looked to see Al'cor still in their grasp; still bleeding, but alive.

He walked to the ship, and set Al'cor on the frozen ground as he maneuvered around the ship, using KT's massive strength to lift semi-buried sections of it out of the snow. Suddenly, KT gave him a warning on the HUD.

" _I'm detecting movement approaching us on all sides, possible hostiles."_

He'd completely forgotten about the pods that had fallen, not to mention the numerous counts of Amalgamates that had to be buried under the snow. "Shit, alright. The ship's relatively clear anyway, let's do this."

He grabbed the XOTBR-16 chain gun from KT's back, and held it out in front of him. The sight before him was a horrific one; blackened creatures rushing at them from all sides, the wind and snow obscuring their vision and creating strobing levels of visibility.

He wasted no time in pumping lead into each and every one of the creatures that approached them, taking satisfaction in the way the bullets tore apart their targets. Inside the cockpit, KT was nonplussed.

" _What are these things?"_

"These are what I've been fighting for the duration of our time here!" he responded frustratedly, "And I just can't seem to get a damn break from them!"

KT lit up his HUD with Al'cor's position. _"Get them on board and start up the ship, I'll continue to hold these things off."_

He nodded, and quickly hopped out in one smooth motion as KT leveled the chain gun at yet another target. He could hear her firing without pause as he made his way over to Al'cor, and began to drag them over to the ship's ramp. Slamming his hand into the outside button in haste, the ramp descended and he was able to pull them up into the vehicle bay before heading to the bridge.

KT stayed near the ramp of the ship, ensuring that none of these horrific creatures made it onboard. They seemed to go down easily enough, it was just that there was no end to their numbers, no respite from the fight.

Finally, she heard the jet-like sounds of the engines cycling on. Tobias' voice came through her radio a moment later, _"The light is green, let's go!"_

Not spending another a second longer on this god-forsaken planet than she had to, she raced onto the ramp and into the vehicle bay as the ship lifted off. She forced the doors to close remotely and yelled, _Punch it!_

With everyone on board, the ship shot up and out of the atmosphere towards their next objective; the first array world.

* * *

 _ **A/N: So there's a Titan, a human, and an Architect on a ship …. not to mention that two of them have been/are the Inferno. What a crew, huh? Now, to address some things about this chapter.**_

 _ **As some of you know, I tend to improvise writing, or at least not have a solid idea of what I'm going to write until I'm actually there. I was very conflicted about Al'cor's fate on this one, but I figured it would be more interesting to have them alive than dead. They were a hair's breadth away from being killed off, but here we are.**_

 _ **Somewhat related to that, Alcor actually means 'assistant', so I thought that was too good to pass up.**_

 _ **Their gender hasn't officially been stated yet, but I do think of Al'cor as being female, or the Architect equivalent of that. In my own mind, Architects are not a purely three-dimensional based race of people, so sexes are probably a bit more complex to explain than ours; but yeah, calling Al'cor female is probably the simplest way to explain it.**_

 _ **And I hope that some of the lore that you can see for the Amalgamates is original enough for you guys; spent hours thinking about it, bouncing between different ideas. I told you that there was some interesting stuff behind their origin.**_

 _ **If you liked this chapter, please leave a review below! I love reading your thoughts.**_

 _ **Until the next time,**_

 _ **\- Matteoarts**_


	15. Grudges

_**A/N: Before you read this chapter, I just wanted to take a moment to talk to you guys about the community I've created for this series.**_

 _ **See, I've come up with a solution to the (many) messages I've gotten asking about using my characters/this universe as part of their story. While I was reluctant until now, I decided to relent and I've created a community titled, "The Architects Series".**_

 _ **I've done this so that you guys can use assets and existing characters from this series to create your own stories, if you so wish. (Yes, this means that all you KTxTobias'ers and GatesxTobias'ers can write your own one shots or what have you if you'd like)**_

 _ **Of course, pairings don't have to be all that it's used for (please don't let it be ALL that it's used for); if you have OC's or something you want me to include, go ahead and write your OC in a story that takes place in this universe! The only thing I ask is that you all keep in mind that "Inferno" and "Tempest" come first when canon is concerned.**_

 _ **The link for it can be found here; /community/The-Architects-Series/126765/3/0/1/ (just add that in after the dot net url) Alternatively, you can find it in the 'COMMUNITIES' section of my profile page!**_

 _ **Other than that, go wild with the stories and let me know when you've written them so I can add them to the archive. Now, enjoy the chapter!**_

* * *

 _ **URGENT TRANSMISSION**_

 _SRC: LT. FOUR_

 _RCPT: CPT. GATES_

 _MSG: Gates, everything's gone to hell. We've encountered a hostile alien species, it's intelligent and dangerous. Warn every planet you can, IMC or Militia, I don't care; humanity is at stake here, not just us. Everything._

 _KT and I are following a plan set in place to destroy it. Get everyone clear of this sector of the frontier, it spreads far and fast. Once we're done, I'll rendezvous with you at Harmony._

 _I don't have time for anything else right now, we need to go. Just be aware, and stay safe._

* * *

He finished the message, and leaned back in the chair with a nervous sigh. He felt twitching, and looked down to see that his hands were shaking involuntarily. Taking in a deep breath to hopefully steady himself, he lifted himself out of is seat and made his way toward the hangar.

In the hangar, KT stood around different monitoring systems as Al'cor stirred feebly on a nearby gurney. There wasn't any real infirmary on the ship, just some medical supplies and the transport gurney they were situated on now. Without knowing more about their anatomy, he couldn't do much for the Architect; that said, he had managed to bandage up the chest area with some work, and at least they weren't heavily bleeding anymore.

Having gotten a closer examination of the 'skin', he was sure that the white of their body was definitely organic and a part of them; but it wasn't truly flesh or muscle like a human's. Instead, it felt more like a mixture of plastic and rubber. If it was true, then that meant that they were 'naked', but he couldn't see any signs of reproductive organs, or sensory organs like eyes and ears. It made him believe that perhaps the Architects were far more advanced not just technologically, but evolutionarily as well. The telepathy Al'cor used was a good indicator that they'd transcended physical limitations when it came to voice; maybe that had been true for other aspects as well.

In any matter, they were alive. Against all odds, he'd managed to pull it off. It made him feel slightly less awful about the situation, knowing that he'd at least managed to save one person from death.

KT looked over at him. "The monitors show that the planet has now surrounded itself with several large objects that weren't there before we left."

"What kind of objects?" he asked.

She blinked. "They're of varying sizes, but they're massive. All are bigger than a standard moon, and moving independently. Scans are uncertain, but they appear to be liquid based with an outer shell of some kind."

He sighed. "We'll ask Al'cor about that when they wake up."

KT moved away from the monitors and stood next to him, now also staring at the white being. "So, this was the Inferno before you? The one who made you become it?"

"Yeah."

KT's voice became a little colder. "So, I have them to thank for you being tortured for two years."

His eyes flashed warningly. "KT, that was my choice. I'm sorry for how it turned out, but I don't regret it. If I hadn't been there and allowed you all to find the location of Typhon, Harmony would be chunks of rock in space."

The Vanguard huffed. "That doesn't excuse them from their actions. They gave you a burden that should have never been yours to bear."

He had no response to that. Had it never been his to bear? The way they phrased it, it almost seemed as though Al'cor had specifically chosen him for this.

Shaking his head, he tossed that line of thought aside. They had more important things to focus on at the moment.

"Look, we need to get to that first array world. But that portal back on the planet was the only sure way to get there, and obviously it's not an option anymore." He sighed, and crossed his arms. "I'm sure that Al'cor knows, but they're unconscious and I'd rather not risk their condition any more than we have to."

KT was silent for a moment, then turned towards a flat section of the wall. Her eye lit up with a holographic projection, and pictures of the charts from the spire materialized. "While you were swapping between timelines, I made sure to get records of everything, including these. Think they'll help?"

His eyes widened, and he jumped into action. "Goddamn, I love you Kay. I can use these charts to reverse engineer some coordinates the navigation system can understand!"

He quickly went over to some supply cabinets to grab a paper and pen. Bringing them back to the wall, he placed it against the side and began to write down what he saw in a translated set of coordinates the computers would understand.

KT hummed warmly. "I'll never get tired of hearing you say that."

He froze only for a moment, and then continued to work as he felt his face grow a bit warm. Behind him, he could hear a synthetic chuckle.

"Your body temperature is fluctuating Tobias, specifically in your countenance. Everything alright?"

"Not the time, Kay," he muttered under his breath. She gave another hum.

With one final look between the projected charts on the wall and his paper, he gave a victory nod. "Alright, I think I've got it. I'm going to punch these coordinates into the nav terminal, and see what happens." With a resigned shrug at the Titan, he turned and ran towards the bridge.

She watched him leave, and turned back towards the monitoring systems. After a few minutes, she heard the ship begin to prepare itself for a warp-space jump.

She also heard the sounds of movement.

Turning quickly around, she was relieved to see that it was just the Architect moving as they began to wake up. She waited for them to gain awareness of surroundings, and felt some odd sort of satisfaction upon seeing Al'cor's head turn from side to side in confusion.

Maybe Tobias was right, but that didn't mean that she had to like them.

The Architect spied her standing there, and tilted their head curiously. _You must be KT._

Well, there went her satisfaction and her advantage of surprise. "How do you know my name?"

 _I have seen into Tobias' mind several times._ They gestured towards the Titan with a slight nod of their head. _You are usually at the head of his thoughts. He thinks of you often._

While that was almost flattering in a sense, it also put the Titan off guard. In any matter, she was uncomfortable talking to the being alone. Not to mention that she was unnerved by the voice in her head. Was that what speech through a neural link sounded like? She wasn't a fan.

"Tobias, your _guest_ is awake," she spoke over the comms, opting to avoid the neural link transmissions for a while. There wasn't enough room in his head for _two_ telepathic voices.

" _Sooner than expected. I'll be right there."_

It was another minute of awkward silence before the sound of his footsteps could be heard from the door that led into the rest of the ship. He came into sight a moment later, his helmet absent for the time being. He looked awful, with bags under his eyes and a general emptiness to his facial expression. She hadn't realized just how badly he might need some rest.

Apparently, it could wait. He waved awkwardly at Al'cor. "Hey."

They stared at him. _How am I still alive? I told you to leave me._

He sighed. "Yeah, I know. But that's not my MO, not anymore. Despite all the 'your heart is good' stuff you told me, I wasn't always-"

 _I'm aware of who you used to be,_ Al'cor interrupted, _but it matters not. What matters is who you are now._

He raised an eyebrow. "You know my past?"

They nodded. _I searched far into the potential futures for someone who would have relevance to the cause, as well as someone whose intentions were pure. There is no doubt that I made the right choice._

So, the Architect _had_ chosen him for this. Somehow, it made him feel a little special. "Alright. Well, then you can understand why I didn't leave you."

They looked down at their body, and the makeshift bandaging that Tobias had done. He winced at the shoddy craft. "Yeah, I don't really know much concerning your bodily functions, so I was a bit hesitant to work on you. The good news is that I stopped most of the bleeding."

They shook their head. _It was not my blood that spilled from me, but my essence._

"Essence?"

Al'cor nodded. _My kind have exceeded physical limitations of pure existence in three dimensions. Our true selves are contained in these physical bodies we create, so we can interact in more primitive ways with reality; however, our methods of communication, reproduction, and other general being is done on a higher plane._

So he was right, there weren't any physical limitations for them like there were for humans. But the idea of literally losing pieces of yourself, as it appeared that Al'cor had been, was a humbling thought.

That brought something of interest to his mind. "Wait … if you're not completely physical, how do the Amalgamates infect you?"

Their voice became a bit more venomous when speaking of the creatures. _Our true selves are still tied to these bodies, as evidenced by my near death. It is akin to dream-walking. If our physical forms die, so do we. And our physical bodies can still be emptied._

"Emptied? Do you mean infected?"

The shook their head. _The Amalgamates are not inherently the method of contamination, only the vessel. It is the ichor inside them, a liquid organism that truly gives the Amalgamates life. It empties your body of its blood and organs, and takes control of its nervous system, converting it to the same frequency as the Seed so it can be controlled. It is more than enough to keep you alive in spite of the loss of your vitals; but there's no hope of recovery._

Well, that was certainly more horrifying than what he'd been expecting.

Attempting to change the subject to lighter conversation, he clasped his hands together. "Well, we're on our way to the first array world now. Should be a few hours, give or take. Mind if I know you a little better?"

Al'cor questioned, _By what do you mean?_

He shrugged. "You've been a large part of my life for over two and a half years now, but I know next to nothing about you. For example, your sex. Your voice doesn't really sound masculine or feminine in my head, it's like-" He waved his hand around as he tried to come up with apt words to describe it. "-it's like the words you're saying just drop right into my mind, like I thought them up even though I know I didn't. So it's a bit hard to tell, you know?"

They stared at him blankly. _I am female. I forgot you had no knowledge of how to determine my kind's gender._

He nodded jokingly. "Yeah, with humans it's pretty easy; you just look down under, and there you go. But I get the feeling that that's not the case with you, is it?"

 _No. We use other senses and means._

He wasn't certain he wanted to pursue the topic of alien genders any more, so he dropped it. But he was glad that now he could start thinking of Al'cor as a 'her' instead of an 'it'.

KT gave an impatient sigh. "Well, now that we've got that out of the way, perhaps we could move on to more important things."

Tobias gave her a warning look, but Al'cor was impossible to read. Finally, the Architect spoke; _I'm sorry._

That caught her off guard. "What?"

Al'cor repeated, _I'm sorry._

For what it was worth, she seemed genuine. KT tried to refine her question. "What are you sorry for?"

She sighed. _I am aware what consequences my actions wrought in making Tobias the Inferno. His capture, and his imprisonment. The only person who could have been just as impacted by his pain as he was … is you._

KT shifted slightly, visibly in discomfort. "I cannot be compared to Tobias; I'm just a machine. My emotions are programmed."

Tobias gave a pained look. "KT, c'mon-"

But Al'cor wasn't done. _Yes, you are a war-machine built by human hands. Just as Tobias is a survival-machine, crafted by nature and evolution._ She looked between the two of them as though to signify their relation to one another. _The materials of which you are made of are irrelevant; what matters is that you are sapient. You must be, or else you would be unable to hear me, which means that your feelings are just as important as his or mine._

She waved a hand at the Pilot. _His emotions are programmed by hormones and chemical reactions, yours by wires and circuits. But that does not make one superior to the other._

At this, she lowered her head in sorrow. _Therefore, I know what a great deal of pain I must have caused you during your separation from him. While I still maintain that my actions were necessary, that does not mean that they were right. I am sorry._

All of the pent up anger that KT had held for the previous Inferno suddenly vanished, and she felt herself ease up as tension left her body. Now, she didn't feel happy; but she wasn't depressed either. It was more of a bittersweet resignation that what had happened could not be changed, and an acceptance of the Architect's apology.

"Kay, you alright?"

She looked over to see Tobias staring at her with a worried expression, and she could understand his concern. Whenever this topic came up, both of them tended to get … sensitive, to a degree. Perhaps it was time to move past that.

"Yes, I'm fine. But you should get some rest before we land, you look like a ghost," she chided.

He smirked, and waved dismissively. "I can sleep when I'm dead."

 _If you are not rested, you may very well end up in that state,_ chimed in Al'cor. _Please, rest._

"You heard the superior race," KT jested. "Go lie down or something. We'll let you know when we land."

He gave her a withering stare, but conceded. "Alright, fine. But if something happens, wake me."

With that, he left to go sit in the pilot's chair, so he could stare at the stars while he fell asleep. Who knew the how much longer they'd be able to enjoy such a serene view?

* * *

 _ **A/N: My God, school is becoming a very large pain in my ass, especially when considering time for writing.**_

 _ **Sorry for the wait on this one, guys. Like I said before, updates are probably going to be irregular. The last few chapters were a lucky accident.**_

 _ **Again, please check out the community! I'd love to see you guys there; /community/The-Architects-Series/126765/3/0/1/ or on my profile page under 'COMMUNITIES'.**_

 _ **Please review down below, I love reading your thoughts! Until the next time,**_

 _ **\- Matteoarts**_


	16. Adam's Ale

_**A/N: It came to my attention that due to me deleting the Q 'n A Chapters (I've moved them to my profile page), the links that were sent to everyone's emails for the latest chapter of Tempest didn't work. I've deleted the chapter and now re-uploaded it below, so that's why you have another notification for "chapter 16".**_

 _ **With that out of the way, enjoy!**_

* * *

" _Command! This is IMC outpost LD745, can anyone read?!"_

" _We hear you, LD745. What's wrong?"_

" _Several massive objects have appeared in nearby space! We've got no idea what they are, but they keep spitting out these rocks or pods or something! They've got creatures in them, some kind of unknown hostile! They're overrunning the base, we need support!"_

" _We've been seeing similar accounts over the last few hours, we're aware of the situation. Hang tight-"_

" _IMC outpost RT957 to anyone who can hear us, we're getting slaughtered down here! We need reinforcements immedia- AGH!"_

" _This is the IMS Helios! Our hull has been ruptured by some kind of massive space anomaly-"_

" _Our defenses are down! What's happening?!"_

" _What the hell is this shit?! It just spat in his face, he's convulsing- OH GOD!"_

" _I don't want to die! Dammit, don't let us- NOOO-"_

" _Dammit! That Militia bitch was right, it's not just a ploy. She was trying to warn us of this shit. Someone notify the higher-ups. I don't care who, Marder, Spyglass, just get someone on the line!_

 _ **\- Recorded transmissions to IMC Operator**_

* * *

 _ **JOIN US TOBIAS.**_

 _He turned to every direction, finding that he was surrounded by charred corpses, reanimated bodies now fulfilling the will of some higher being. They shambled about, calling out to him with their tortured voices in unison._

 _ **STOP RESISTING THE TRUE PATH, AND JOIN US.**_

 _He tried to run, searching for an escape from the Amalgamates. He had to stop the Amalgamation from happening, or everything would become apart of this abomination. if he didn't get to those array worlds in time-_

 _His head exploded with pain as some kind of horrible hissing sound began to scream in his mind. If he didn't know better, he'd say it was some distorted, corrupted version of … laughter._

 _ **WHERE ARE THE ARRAYS, TOBIAS? TELL US. TELL US.**_

 _It probed his brain, looking for the locations of the array worlds … it wanted to destroy the arrays, to stop the Tempest! He fought it, focusing on anything he could to avoid its grip of filth on his mind._

 _He heard something grow louder in his mind, but just as quickly it was suppressed. The Seed was trying to keep him from acknowledging it. He had no idea what it was, but he needed to focus … focus-_

With a start, his entire body jerked out of his slumped position he'd taken as he'd slept. The noise he'd heard was a constant beeping that was emitting from the control console in front of him.

It was a notification from the navigation system that they were approaching the coordinates now. Finally, some good news. He decided to take a look out of the viewport and see what was happening.

Coming up fast was a smaller planet than he'd usually seen; its surface was entirely blue and white, leading him to believe that maybe this was a water world of sorts. He supposed that he'd see once they were down there.

" _Tobias, are you alright?"_

He heard KT's voice come through the ship's comm speakers. He appreciated her use of the radio instead of the neural link; he didn't need two telepathic voices in his mind.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he responded easily. There was no need to tell her about the-

 _KT says that you were having a nightmare._

Dammit. KT must have sensed it through their link.

He sighed, inwardly cursing the Titan for both her and Al'cor doting over him. "Yeah, but it's just a dream. Not like it can-"

 _Are they about the Seed?_

He paused. "… Yeah?"

 _Those are no more dreams than our own communications for the last few months. Now that the Seed is active in this part of the timeline, it will attempt to finish what it started eons ago. That includes wiping out resistance; you must not give in to its prying._

That was another problem on top of the several he already had. "So this thing can read my mind? In my dreams?"

 _Not if you refuse it access. But you must remain strong in your conviction._

He exhaled deeply. "Great. Well, we're approaching the first array world now. One step closer to getting rid of these things for good."

" _Hopefully."_

As the ship broke atmosphere, they began to descend through the clouds. Tobias began to punch in a few search parameters on the ship's scanning systems, namely any anomalies that held the same artificial structure that the Architects were notorious for using. He was pleased when he found a match, and directed the ship to travel to it.

"I've got a lock on the array. Al'cor, is there anything you can tell us about it?"

 _We sent the Seed forward before the array worlds were finished; I know not of what my species finally did, only what they intended._ She sounded apologetic, as though it was her fault that they didn't have any other info.

"That's fine, but what is it that they intended?"

She paused. _The original idea was to create three arrays in a triangular pattern on separate planets, channeling the most power capable when all three are activated. The arrays themselves were planned to be machines that would reside in the core of the planets, activated by triggers on the surface._

He nodded, glad to have an idea of what he was looking for. "Got it, thanks."

Finally, the ship breached the lower end of the clouds and he was able to see the surface of the planet below them as they continued to descend. As he'd suspected, the planet was covered in water. The actual topography of the planet was quite odd, however.

While the majority of it seemed to be quite shallow, no more than two to three feet deep with the occasional dips to seven feet or so, there were anomalies. Spaced out every two hundred meters or so, there were massive holes stretching around thirty meters in diameter. In those holes, the water became very dark due to their depth. He actually couldn't see just how far they went down, so he was all the more curious as to why they were there, or what they were hiding.

He checked the navigation systems again. Only two miles out from the site. He stared back out the viewport, looking for any indication of where they were headed.

In less than a minute, he saw what they were looking for. With an almost temple-esque appearance, a structure could be seen residing in the shallows. It was quite simple looking really; there were four sides to it, each with an inclining set of stairs to allow access to a platform at the top. He assumed that the platform was where he'd need to activate the array.

He looked around, trying to find a good zone to land. Unfortunately, most of the area was unusually deep for the shallows, measuring around ten to fifteen feet in depth according to the ship's readings. The landing gear wouldn't extend that far down, and the engines would get waterlogged. The only place where he could reasonably set down was roughly a hundred feet from the structure, next to one of the holes.

Piloting the ship over, he began to initiate landing procedures. The landing gear extended, and the ship gently eased down to the shallow rocks below. He held his breath, waiting for the moment that the ship would stop moving.

Finally, with a shuddering sigh, movement ceased. Giving a sigh of relief, he began to head back towards the hangar.

Upon arriving, he found KT ready to go, and Al'cor sitting up on her gurney. Pointing at the Architect, he ordered, "You stay here. KT and I will go activate this thing, and then we'll move onto the next array." Hearing no argument from her, he took that as an acceptance of the plan. He walked over to the door, and hit the button for it to lower into a ramp.

As the machinery whirred and the ramp fell into the shallow water, he looked at Al'cor. "Can the Seed follow us here?"

She seemed to think it over for a moment. _So long as you deny it entry to your mind's inner workings, it should not be able to read your thoughts. As such, it cannot ascertain the location from you._

He nodded. "Good enough for me." He was about to walk down the ramp, but paused and then walked over to the side of the hangar instead.

"What are you doing?" asked KT. He found what he was looking for, and showed it to her. It was a signal beacon.

"I don't want to broadcast or anything," he explained, "I just want to know how far down those holes go. Call it morbid curiosity. Just track it for me when I throw it in, alright?"

She nodded, and with that they headed out.

Moving down the ramp, he waded into the water. He noticed that the rocks here were decently slippery; not enough to knock him off his feet, but enough to cause him to worry about the ship's stability at its current position.

Meandering around the side of the ship, he felt worry rise within him overtime the slap of the water against the hull caused a creaking noise. Fortunately, it seemed as though the ship wasn't in danger of falling into the hole anytime soon.

When he reached the edge of the hole, he gave a whistle as he peered into its depths. Relatively clear, he definitely could see that it was pretty damn deep. He still didn't know its purpose, but baby steps were needed here.

Turning to the Titan at his side, he held the beacon up for her to see. "You ready?"

She blinked once, shifting her position with a few splashes of her legs moving around in the water. "Ready."

Switching the beacon on to a local range, he tossed it as close to the center of the hole as he could. There, he watched it as it sank and streaked down into the blackness below.

KT remained silent for the duration of its journey, until finally she tilted her head up slightly when she noticed a halt in its progress. "Wow."

"What?"

"The beacon has finally stopped. Seven hundred and eighty meters down."

His eyes widened behind the visor of his helmet, and he gave a loud whistle. "Damn, I wasn't expecting that. Well over two thousand feet."

She looked around at the water. "But that's not what I'm interested in; its the color."

He looked at her oddly. "The color?"

She nodded. "More specifically, why its the color it is. It's slightly more saturated than it should be, and I've analyzed its chemical makeup compared to the water here in the shallows." She gestured towards the water they were currently standing in. "In spite of appearance, the water in the shallows is not safe to drink; it has a toxicity in it that would be dangerous to consume in large quantities."

Then she pointed at the water in the hole. "Meanwhile, this water has undergone a chemical reaction that not only makes it safe for consumption, but seems to have enhanced it."

"Enhanced it how?"

"This is only a guess, but it seems consistent with the same chemical processes that water with sugar in it undergoes. It seems that it might be 'sweeter' than normal."

He looked at the water again. "So it's flavored?"

"It would appear so."

He looked at it for a moment longer. "Well, that's interesting but we should get a move on. Every second we spend here is more time for the Seed to complete the Amalgamation."

Turning away from the hole, both he and the Titan began to trudge through the water towards the temple.

"All this water is gonna cause my metal to rust," KT muttered.

She was surprised to hear him laugh, the first genuine sign of happiness she'd seen from him in a long time. She didn't tell him that she noticed, but she did look over at him and give him a content hum of satisfaction. Whatever it was, it was progress.

Here, they were forced to cross the deeper areas of the shallows. KT, being roughly eighteen feet in height, was able to just barely walk across the bottom with her head still raising out of the water. Tobias on the other hand, had to swim his way across. It was slow as his armor weighed him down a bit, but he managed.

Upon eventually reaching the base of the temple, he became aware of a very peculiar anomaly. It seemed that the water around the base of it was pulled upward and into the air, in defiance of gravity. Indeed, water droplets could be seen floating above the surface of the water which, besides disobeying the laws of physics, seemed to be acting normally.

"You seeing this?" he muttered to KT.

She gave a derisive snort. "You mean the obviously unusual behavior of the water? Yeah, it's hard to miss."

Ignoring her sarcasm, he decided to ask the Architect. "Hey, Al'cor? We've got some gravitational anomalies here."

 _When inactive, the arrays produce a sort of stasis field,_ she replied. _It would likely be the cause of the anomalies you see._

Accepting that answer, he decided to proceed. He looked at KT. "Stay here at the base, I'll be right back." She blinked, and then turned in a defensive position to protect him, as unlikely as the need was.

Ascending the stairs, it was only a few steps before he was out of the water again. Jogging his way up to the platform, he saw that it was a relatively straightforward setup. In the center of the platform was a hole that descended downward into depths unknown, presumably towards the core of the planet where Al'cor said that the true array was located.

Above the hole was a ring-shaped gate of sorts, keeping anyone from falling in. In front of the gate was a pedestal, much like the one that he'd used to bring the Seed to this timeline in the first place, and he sensed that it could only be activated by the Inferno as well.

Extending away from the platform was a small bridge of sorts, with two pillars on the end of it. If he didn't know any better, he'd say that …

"Al'cor," he spoke back to the ship over the comms, "there looks to be a portal device here. Do you think it would take us to the next array?"

 _That would be the most likely outcome,_ she responded.

He nodded in understanding. "Alright, then that's where we're heading once I activate this thing. We'll grab you from the ship, and we'll head through together."

Not wanting to wait any longer, he placed his hand against the slap of the pedestal. It glowed a cool blue at his touch, and a faint rumbling could be heard throughout the structure as some ancient plan was set into motion.

Without warning, a massive blue beam shot out from the hole that the gate surrounded. It ascended high into the sky, and presumably out of atmosphere. At the same time, the portal activated and a rift appeared between the pillars on the end of the bridge.

Having not expected the event, he jerked backwards in surprise and fell down the stairs with a painful tumble. Fortunately, his armor protected him until he came to a stop in the water below.

"Are you alright?" KT quickly asked. He could tell she was worried, but he also detected a hint of laughter behind her voice. Apparently, his fall had looked funnier than it had felt.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he grumbled. "Let's just go."

Swimming back towards the shallower ends of the water, he was grateful to have his feet on relatively stable ground again. He looked up at KT with a bit of excitement in his step.

"If there's a portal at the next array station too, then we could activate all three within the hour," he theorized happily. "Maybe this whole event will blow over faster than we expected."

"That's all we can hope for," KT agreed.

He was about to reply when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. "Whoa, look; animals."

KT turned towards where he was indicating, noticing a small group of amphibian like creatures approaching one edge of the hole that their ship was positioned next to. They were rather large, with the biggest being twice the size of an elephant. Still, they weren't anywhere near the largest creatures that had been recorded on the Frontier.

Their bodies were much like frogs, angled and stout. They stood on four legs, and their heads almost looked like much rounder versions of crocodilians. He couldn't see their teeth, so he couldn't guess if they were herbivores or carnivores. If they were herbivores, he had no idea what they ate; he hadn't seen any vegetation on the planet yet.

As they watched, a few of them stepped next to the hole, and began to drink from the water within. As seemed to be the standard of many creatures in the galaxy, they still needed to drink water.

"Is that where every animal has to drink from?" he wondered aloud. "Those holes? Seems kind of odd that the rest of the water would make them sick, so they're forced to go there to drink."

"It seems that way," KT pondered, "but you're right. What kind of ecosystem would have designated areas for drinking when the entire planet is covered in water?"

Letting KT stare at the animals a few moments longer, he looked towards the ship where the ramp was still lowered and Al'cor could be seen waiting for them to retrieve her. He began to move over towards the ship to grab her before the animals became a bit more curious towards them.

Walking onto the ramp, he extended a hand to Al'cor so that she could lean on him. As she was seven feet tall, he was a bit short to properly support her, but he managed an awkward kind of stance.

Suddenly KT cried out, "Tobias, get out of there!"

He tilted his head curiously. "There's still supplies to get in here, what's the hurry?"

"The beacon, the one you threw in the hole!"

He furrowed his brow in confusion. "Yeah?"

She gestured at the hole in front of the ship. "It's coming _back up!"_

With a start, he realized what she meant. Setting Al'cor down for a moment, he rushed down the ramp and turned to look at the hole. It seemed pretty still, no disturbance could be seen as far as he could tell.

KT monitored the beacon's progress. "Four hundred meters … three hundred meters … two hundred meters …"

Now, there were a few waves in the deep pool of water. A few of the animals seemed to notice and backed off instinctively, but three of them continued to drink in ignorance. He had no idea what was about to happen, but whatever it was-

With the loudest explosion of water that he'd ever heard, something _massive_ erupted from the hole. Showering tons of water onto them, Tobias' vision was completely obstructed for a few seconds. When he was finally able to see again, he gasped at what he saw before him.

Stretching high into the air was an enormous serpent, some kind of ophidian leviathan. It was a dark teal in color, blending in easily with the shadowy water of the hole it resided in. Folds on its head created a sort of hood, much like a cobra. Its mouth was pointed and angular, but he noticed that there were no teeth.

As he watched, it slammed its massive mouth onto the edge of the hole where the three animals had still been drinking. In a flash, they disappeared down its gullet. Now he realized why there were no teeth; what use was there when this thing could just swallow its prey whole?

The weight of its body began to affect it, and it began to slide back down into the depths of the hole from where it came. Maybe this thing had to propel itself upwards in order to reliably attack and get prey. Which meant that for every meal, it had to …

"Oh no," he muttered in realization. "Al'cor, we need to-"

With another massive eruption, the serpent launched itself out of the water again, this time aiming at the ship. It dove headfirst into the nose of it, completely crushing the front end of it and unsettling the landing gear.

Al'cor was knocked off her feet, and he fell over into the shallow water. Scrambling to get back into a standing position, he was horrified to see the creature slowly dragging the ship into the depths.

 _Tobias!_ Al'cor cried, unable to do much as the ship began to slide off the edge of the shallows and into the deep.

Raising his left arm, he grappled onto the ship's hangar and felt himself get pulled into it. The entire room was beginning to fill with water, and it hindered his progress as he tried to successfully grab onto the Architect.

"Come on!" he yelled in panic. She finally managed to grasp his arm tightly, and he aimed back towards the rocky ground of the shallows before firing his grapple again.

But the hook didn't stick the impact, and it floated freely in the water. There was no time to go for a second attempt as the creature finally moved the ship enough, and with a final lurch it plummeted into the darkness below.

Water immediately surrounded them, and he made sure to hold onto her tight as he still held out hope. They had to be nearly sixty feet under water, there was no way they were swimming out of here with his armor and Al'cor's injuries. But if he'd played his cards right-

Suddenly, both he and Al'cor began to be pulled up by the grappling hook. With quick progress, they rose through the water up to the surface above. Thirty feet … twenty feet … ten feet …

With a loud splash, the two were yanked out of the water by KT, who was holding the other end of Tobias' grappling hook in her hands. "Are you two alright?!"

He waved his arm forward rapidly. "Doesn't matter, we need to leave! Go, go!"

The three of them began to run towards the temple as they heard the disturbance of yet another eruption behind them. Fortunately, as Tobias saw when he turned, the serpent's length was not enough to reach them at this point.

KT on the other hand, wasn't convinced of their safety. "I'm detecting more seismic activity consistent with the readings produced by that thing-"

The reason was quite apparent a moment later, as another serpent burst out of a nearer hole, and also tried to attack them. He was pretty sure that these things could sense when potential prey was near, so as long as they remained here then they weren't safe in any sense of the word.

They reached the deeper section of the shallows, and began to make their way towards the temple, the portal being their only chance of escape.

Suddenly, something very odd began to take place in the hole that the water led into. A small whirlpool began to form, and slowly began to build itself bigger and bigger until it covered the surface of the hole. Tobias noticed that the water they were swimming in was being pulled towards the whirlpool, and them along with it.

"KT!" he yelled, and the Titan responded by grabbing both him and the Architect, and holding on tightly. He felt the rest of his body being pulled mercilessly towards the hole, and knew that without her holding them, they'd be sucked into it. He guessed that the serpent in the hole was employing a tactic to drag creatures into its waiting maw for consumption.

Finally, the pull stopped and KT urged them forward. "Move, move!" They were able to continue unhindered until they reached the base of the structure and climbed the stairs hurriedly.

"So," he huffed short of breath, "I think I know why the water is so different now."

KT looked out at the holes which dotted the landscape. "So the serpents convert the water into a drinkable form, and the other animals are forced to drink from there and potentially end up as prey." She scoffed. "Pretty barbaric ecosystem if you ask me."

Al'cor said nothing, evidently still a bit shocked by the events which had just transpired. Tobias let her be, and looked over at the pedestal where a few symbols could be seen glowing on the surface of it. Roughly translating in his mind, he was pretty sure that it said 'one of three active'.

"C'mon," he waved to the other two, "time's a wasting. Let's get a move on." He moved over near the portal, waiting for the other two to join him.

With one last look towards the water planet and its deceptively hidden brutality, they stepped through the rift.

* * *

 _ **A/N: Been a while, huh?**_

 _ **Sorry about the lack of updates, but like I warned you; I don't have all the time in the world to be writing currently. I wish that weren't the case, but hopefully this chapter was good enough for you guys to forgive me for that.**_

 _ **One array world down, two to go. And as can be seen in the beginning transmissions, the Seed is making moves. Which will be faster; our trio, or the Amalgamation? Only one way to find out; stick around.**_

 _ **Please follow, favorite, and review! I love reading your thoughts below.**_

 _ **Until the next time,**_

 _ **\- Matteoarts**_


	17. Silence

With a soft humming noise, Tobias exited the rift that had been created.

Immediately, he noticed that they were on a nearly identical structure to the one they'd just come from. It was in a pit of some kind, one that looked like it had been dug out. His theory was confirmed as he saw floodlights and lamps around the area, shining light onto the site even in darkness. Evidently, someone had discovered this site first.

Just like with the last planet, the gravity seemed to be acting funny. Rocks and bits of sand hovered in mid-air. But the rest of the ground around them wasn't really affected. He surmised that it only had a true effects on items that weren't directly tied down or attached to the ground by something; in this case, it was the planet's crust.

As he looked back, he watched the portal close and deactivate, waiting for further instruction. KT took the time to look around and analyze their new location. "My sensors indicate that the atmosphere here is breathable, but not particularly sufficient in oxygen. I'd recommend not staying out in the open too long."

He could feel it, like he was high in a mountainous region where the air was thin. He sucked in air, but felt little satisfaction. Deciding to rely on his suit's reserve oxygen, he nodded. "Understood. Al'cor, how are you holding up?"

 _My physical body requires no sustenance or elements._ She said it with a expository tone, assuring him that she was fine. _So long as I do not come to bodily harm, I will be alright._

That was as good an answer for him as any. Walking over to the activation slab, he placed his hand against it. It quickly went through the cycle of glowing blue, and then rumbling as he knew what it was about to do next. Bracing himself for it this time, he didn't stumble backwards as the massive beam shot out from the core of the planet and into the depths of space above.

Looking up, he was surprised to see the the other beam was visible in the stars as well, coming from a direction that stretched far past the horizon. Normally, he'd assume that the light would have taken a bit longer to reach this point than what it had, but considering that they were working with technology far above the level of humanity, he was willing to ignore the fact. It indeed seemed to be forming a triangular shape, as Al'cor had indicated it should. Once it was active, all of the floating debris came crashing down onto the ground with puffs of dirt rising whenever they landed.

Looking back at where the portal was supposed to open, however, he furrowed his brow at seeing that it remained inactive. Looking back at the slab, he saw new writing below the one saying 'two of three activated'. Translating, he knew that the first one said something along the lines of, 'warning passage obstructed'.

The second one was a bit more confusing; he was pretty sure it said, 'final fate awaits'. What that meant, he had no idea.

"Al'cor? We've got a bit of an issue."

The Architect walked over, towering above Tobias by a good two feet. As she read the transcription, she seemed to seize up.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

 _The portal cannot open,_ she explained. _There is something blocking its counterpart on the next array world, keeping us from traveling there. We will have to go there manually._

Tobias swore internally. "Well, that's just great." He looked at her. "Can you see if you can access this system, and snag the coordinates for the planet at least?"

She nodded, and set to work. It was fascinating to see her work and maneuver with the holographic symbols that hovered above the slab. After a good minute or so, she gave a mental breath of relief. _I have the coordinates._

"And you can remember them?"

 _Yes._

He gave a quick nod to himself. "Okay, then we need to find a ride. KT, scan this thing's structure so we can find a match for it on the last array world."

She nodded, and began to analyze the point's three dimensional layout. Tobias took the time to turn towards Al'cor.

"What about that last message? 'Final fate awaits', or similar?"

She seemed to lower her head slightly. _I will tell you when we leave, but you must trust wait until then. Please, trust me._

Purely because she asked him to, he felt like he should trust her less; but considering how far they'd gotten, he decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. "Fine. Let's focus on getting a ship."

"I may have a possible lead," KT called. "I'm picking up a radio transmission from a nearby base, IMC codes. I assume that it's the same group studying this site, and they likely have a few ships we could take."

"Great, let's-"

"However," she interrupted, "there's a problem." After a moment, she began to play the transmission through external speakers.

" _-too many of them! We're getting overrun! If anyone can hear this, help us! Help- AGGGHHH-"_

The haunting message was cut off by KT as she gravely explained, "It appears that the Amalgamates have gotten here first."

"Shit," Tobias muttered. He looked towards Al'cor. "Can they destroy the array here?"

She shook her head. _Once the arrays are activated, they should become quantam-locked. They will only cease to be so when all three have been activated accordingly._

"So we don't have to worry about them taking this place out?"

 _No._

"Good." He turned towards his Titan. "Then we're going in."

…

After a hike out of the pit, and then a trek across nearly half a mile of a barren, desert-like landscape, they reached the outer perimeter of a small outpost. It seemed much like the first one that he, Vale, and Tyra had found on Erebus. Not very big, just a research station. There were no defenses or barricades to speak of, apparently they hadn't expected any kind of resistance way out here. A few hours ago, they would have been right.

"Why are the Amalgamates even here?" questioned Tobias as they traveled to the back of the base, presumably where a shipyard would be. "How could they spread so fast?"

Al'cor gave a thoughtful pause. _As I said, they have been around for billions of years. It is likely that they, or at least the Seed, has evolved like my own race to transcend three simple dimensions. Much like its bond with whatever force lies outside our realm, it is likely that it can maneuver its forces at will throughout space like a strategist looking at a map._ She looked at him. _In other words, it can pluck and place its Amalgamates wherever it chooses with relative reason, so long as it has them in supply._

So that explained how the pods had followed into the present so easily; they were in a limbo state of non-reality until they were called upon by the Seed to further the cause of Amalgamation.

Arriving finally, Tobias was glad to see that there was indeed a shipyard here. Seeing that none of the ships had taken off, however, imbued him with a sense of dread for whatever scene awaited inside the base.

Crushing the fence surrounding the yard for Tobias and Al'cor, KT covered the three of them as they moved towards one of the Widow-class dropships to accommodate KT's chassis. Upon reaching one, he found that the vessel itself was not locked, but a remote lockdown had been placed on the systems.

"Dammit. There's a lockdown; if we don't get rid of it, then we're not going anywhere."

"Where's the signal coming from?" asked KT worriedly.

He sighed. "Well, it's only logical to assume that it's coming from in there." He pointed at the outpost, not eager for what he was about to say. "Considering that your size isn't compatible with most human hallways, and there's no reason for Al'cor to come along, I'll go in by myself and shut it down."

KT gave a soft sound of discomfort. "I'm not sure how much I like the idea of you walking straight into a base compromised by those things."

He shrugged and gestured around at their surroundings. "Unless you have any better ideas, I don't think we have a lot of options."

He gave her his signature two finger salute as he made his way towards the entrance, not giving her a chance to dispute the issue. "Don't worry, I'll be back before you know it."

…

He wished that he could say his bravado followed him into the base, but he'd be lying. As he walked through the dark and shadowy halls in silence, he could not help but notice the carnage all around. Walls had been scratched and splattered with the blood of violent skirmishes, that orange goo of the Amalgamates pooled in puddles on the ground, and the silence was occasionally broken only by the howls and screeches of the unseen creatures as they prowled the facility unrestricted.

The only bodies he saw were ones that were far too destroyed for the Amalgamates to convert anything; the largest piece he found of someone was the upper torso of an IMC rifleman, their innards spilling out from the gaping hole beneath their stomach. He couldn't see where their legs had gone, and frankly he didn't care. He just tried to keep himself from imagining himself in that same position.

He shuddered, reflecting back when his only problems had been other humans and a corrupt corporation. Those were the days.

Stopping, he found himself at the door to the command center for the outpost. It was locked, however. Most of the other barricades and doors had been battered apart, presumably broken through sheer force by the Amalgamates. But this one must have been reinforced, judging from the fact that they hadn't destroyed it yet. Only way to get through would be for someone to allow it to open upward.

He also knew that someone had to be inside; IMC command centers were only capable of being locked down from within, as per protocol. At least, it had been when he'd been a member of their ranks.

With a light knock, he tapped against the metal of the door, hoping someone was inside to let him in. There was no answer, but he was not so easily deterred. Looking up, he saw that there was a camera in the corner of the ceiling between the door and adjunct wall.

Quickly he waved to it, trying to get the attention of anyone who happened to be watching. "Hey!" he called softly. "Open up!"

There was no response from within, but he felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise up as he heard a noise akin to both a growl and gargle emanate from somewhere in the darkness. It wasn't extremely close, but it wasn't far either. Definitely not where he'd like it to be in any matter.

Hurriedly, he gave another small rap on the metal door. "Come on, open the door! These things are out here, and they're not gonna stay docile for long-"

Indeed, the noise sounded again; but this time, it was much closer than he'd thought it could be in such a short space of time. His best guess was that it was roughly twenty five meters feet down the hallway. He couldn't see it, but he knew it was there. Evidently, they were much faster than he'd assumed.

"Open!" he ordered urgently, his tone full of fear. "Dammit, let me in!"

Now, he heard the sounds of something large shuffling towards him from down the hall.

"It's now or-"

With a metallic groan, the door began to slide upwards toward the ceiling. It stopped when there was two feet of space between it and the floor.

"Hurry!" he heard a voice call from the other side. Quickly diving onto the ground and rolling under, Tobias watched the door begin to immediately slide back down as the shuffling became louder and faster. With a resounding slam, it closed and locked out whatever it was on the other side.

Breathing heavily from the adrenaline rush, Tobias looked up to see an IMC Rifleman holding a Hammond P2016 at him. "Don't move, and I won't shoot."

Opting to obey, he was content to simply stay in that position on the floor. "Look, I don't have any problem with you-"

"Nor I with you, Pilot," the grunt shot back, "With all this going on, the IMC and Militia have called a ceasefire. So you and I aren't enemies at the moment."

Tobias narrowed his eyes. "What do mean, 'all this'?"

The grunt breathed heavily, fear all too apparent on his features. "I've heard a lot of shit's going down. A few planets have just been attacked by these … these _things_." He moaned. "They just show up without warning, and start attacking anything in sight. We didn't think they'd be here, but these rocks just started falling from the sky, and then …"

"The pods," Tobias breathed. "Those were pods."

"You know about this?" the man asked incredulously. He nodded.

"Yeah, and I know how to stop them too." He pointed behind the rifleman, towards a control console. "But I can't do it unless I get off this planet, and to do that I need you to deactivate the ships' lockdown codes."

The man seemed wary of the prospect. "I shut down all the ships to keep this stuff from spreading offworld … you want to risk that?"

Usually, Tobias would have considered that a smart move; however, in this case it was a useless gesture. "As you already know, these things pop in wherever they want. A lockdown of all the ships in the area isn't going to help anything, except keep me here."

"Who are you, anyway?" the man challenged. "You say you can stop this, but I don't even-"

"I'm sure that you've heard of the Inferno," Tobias interrupted, "that little project where a Militia Pilot was imbued with some kind of ancient power, and then kept as a prisoner for two years while you all studied him?"

The rifleman paled. "T-That's classified-"

"Not to me," Tobias growled. "Now, I've been dealing with a lot of shit in the last day or so, and I'd very much appreciate if you could throw me a bone here and make my job a little easier."

The man finally seemed to have grasped exactly who Tobias was. "I don't know how the hell you got here, but if you really do know how to stop these things …" He took his aim off of Tobias, and moved over to the control console. "There. Ships are unlocked. I hope you know what you're doing."

Tobias beckoned for him to follow. "Come on, you can make it out of here too-"

The man gave a bark of grim laughter. "I don't even expect you to make it out of here, let alone both of us. I've seen what those creatures did to the rest of us, and I think I'll be taking the easy way out on this one instead." He held the P2016 to his own head. "I can't force you to do anything, but I'd recommend you do the same."

Before he could stop him, the rifleman pulled the trigger. Closing his eyes, he avoided the gruesome scene, and only had to hear the splashing noise of liquid being sprayed against the far wall. Opening his eyes once more, he tried to keep himself from staring at the man's corpse, and instead walked over to the door controls.

He wished he could say that he was more moved by the man's death, but he'd become a bit desensitized over the last day or so. All he cared about at the moment was getting back to KT and Al'cor in one piece. "KT, come in."

" _Tobias?"_

"The ship should have been relieved of the lockdown. I need you to start it up, and get the two of you onboard. I'm gonna book it, probably with a lot of these things behind me; so make sure we've got a quick escape, alright?"

He heard silence for a moment before she responded. _"The ship's engines are running. Be safe."_

"I'll see you in a minute." Cutting the connection, he gave himself a few seconds to prepare himself. Once he opened this door, there was no going back.

 _Three._

 _Two._

 _One._

Flipping the door release, he heard the loud groan of the door sliding upward once more. This time, he didn't bother to wait for it before he rolled under and began to sprint back the way he came.

As his footsteps pounded on the hard floor, he heard the screams of the Amalgamates as they began to pursue him through the halls. Looking over his shoulder, he was horrified to see misshapen figures and deformed bodies occasionally pass through dim sections of light before falling back into shadow as they chased him unseen.

The terrifying sight only pushed him to run faster, and he raced through the complex with a choking sensation of terror threatening to overcome all other senses.

Finally reaching the entry door, it slid open for him seconds before he rushed into the shipyard, his feet slamming the ground the whole way. He wasn't alone, as the other Amalgamates were finally shown in the light for the first time, mostly comprised of IMC members, though there were a few of the Architect variants among them. He had mostly been fighting Amalgamates comprised of other ancient species before, so it was still a shock to see just how twisted they could make the human body.

At the end of the yard, he saw the Widow hovering a few feet off the ground. Its side door was open, and KT was waiting with a large metal hand outstretched. "Hurry!"

With the Amalgamates chasing him much like a hound chases a fox, he gave it every last ounce of energy he had to sprint the remainder. With a final cry of exhaustion, he leapt into the air expectantly-

He felt KT's large fingers curl around him tightly. "Got you!"

Without a second to spare, the Widow began to rise up into the air as the side door closed. KT set him down, and nudged him towards the cockpit. "Glad to see that you're alright, but our job isn't finished yet. Get Al'cor to punch in those coordinates, and let's finish this."

Nodding silently, as he was still catching his breath, he made his way into the cockpit to continue onto the last step of their journey.

* * *

 _ **A/N: Coming up onto the climax here, people. I already know that I'm definitely not going to be finishing it in one chapter, so don't worry yourselves over the length quite yet.**_

 _ **Sorry if this chapter feels a bit short or quick, but there wasn't a lot of room in the story to spend on these first two array worlds. On the last, however … oh boy.**_

 _ **Until the next time,**_

 _ **\- Matteoarts**_


	18. Waning Endurance

_**Four's Logbook**_

 _Two down. One to go. Nothing left but the last array … and whatever Al'cor's so anxious about telling me._

 _Let's finish this._

* * *

Tobias moved into the cockpit and set himself down on the pilot's seat, taking note of the fact that Al'cor was situated in the co-pilot's chair. Being over seven feet tall, she didn't quite fit comfortably; but it would have to do for the journey until they arrived.

He looked over at her, and nodded towards to control console. "Alright, let's plug in those coordinates you grabbed."

She seemed hesitant. _Tobias, I must discuss with you about the final fate. It's very-_

He shook his head. "Coordinates first, then that. The longer we wait, the more worlds fall to the Amalgamates."

Though apparently frustrated with his arguing, she relented and held very still. Suddenly, an image appeared in his head; the screen of the slab back at the second array. He could see those foreign symbols, those characters of the Architects' language. She was providing him with this view so that he could enter them himself.

Turning towards the navigation console, he translated the coordinates in his mind, and punched in the numbers. After processing them for a second, the computer gave them a confirmation request; apparently, it was within close enough space to instantly warp there. But it also flashed a warning which he read carefully.

"'Coordinates fall within hostile space,'" he muttered. It then asked him if he was certain he wanted to initiate a warp. Apparently, wherever the last array world was, it was considered dangerous to the IMC.

"Alright everyone," he called. "Here we go!"

Overriding the computer's warning, he confirmed the jump and watched his vision begin to distort as the entire ship flashed out of existence, into warp-space, and then materialized once more.

Immediately, he was presented with several stimuli. The viewport cleared once more, and the communications channel was suddenly overrun by a multitude of signals.

" _We've got a ship that just landed at Divine air field, sending out inspection teams-"_

" _This is IMC dropship 32-10, requesting to land near Chorus, I've got wounded aboard-"_

" _Lieutenant Rose of the WOH reporting in, I'm gonna make another pass on my scouting route. See if any other ships are entering without clearance in high orbit-"_

" _Ma'am, I've got an unknown object that just warped into orbit. Has IMC codes. Lot of IMC pouring in here today …"_

" _Thanks. IMC Widow 78-31, you have ten seconds to verify that you are indeed in control of the ship before we take offensive measures."_

With a start, he realized two things; one, that the last transmission was referring to his ship. And two, that he recognized the voice on the other end. Urgently, he thumbed for the comms to transmit.

"Gates! Gates, it's me!"

She paused for a moment. _"State your name, or else-"_

"It's Tobias! KT and I are aboard!"

Now she seemed to have recognized his voice. _"Four? For the love of- you have clearance to descend. Get your ass down here now, lock in on my coordinates. Sending them to you now."_

Obliging, he began to steer the ship into a descent maneuver. Before long, he began to enter low orbit in preparation for landing. It was a planet covered with green and blue, a pretty sight compared to the ones he'd been visiting the last day or so.

" _Here's a question; why the hell are you aboard an IMC ship?"_

"I don't have time to explain this right now, but I need-" He stopped for a moment, suddenly realizing the oddity of the scenario. "Hold on … Gates? What are you doing on that planet?"

All those other comm channels … it didn't seem to be some backwater world like the other two. Why would Gates be on the last array world?

" _You told me to come here, remember? Good thing you did, we've been running into these things all over. Doesn't matter what system, they just seem to pop in. Luckily, we've got some damn good defenses here. Manage to blast the buggers out of the sky before they can cause any damage-_

"Gates, _where are we?"_ he asked again, worry in his tone.

She seemed confused. _"This is Harmony, where you said you'd rendezvous with me, remember? Isn't that why you're here?"_

He was stunned for a moment, and sat back in his chair as the ship continued to descend. Harmony had a massive population, there was so much risk-

In an instant, his head exploded with agony, and he was caught off guard, unable to defend himself. Al'cor jerked back in surprise at his outburst. _Tobias?! Are you-_

 _ **YES. YES. THE LAST ARRAY IS REVEALED TO US.**_

 _Those invasive tendrils from before probed his mind again, but this time he was helpless to stop them as they grabbed Harmony's location and fled back to the entity they belonged to._

 _ **SOON, TOBIAS. ALL SHALL BECOME ONE. JOIN US.**_

 _ **JOIN US.**_

With a scream of pain, he managed to just barely wrench himself out of his stupor long enough to hear KT yelling at him over the comms, _"PULL UP! TOBIAS, PULL UP!"_

He registered the sight of the ground racing up to meet them, and he quickly reached over to yank the stick back. Pulling sharply out of a nosedive, the strain was too much for the fins on the sides to handle, and they were wrenched off. With nothing to hold them up, the ship fell out of the air and landed hard on its bottom. Tobias' head hit the dashboard, and blackness took him.

…

"Tobias?! Tobias!"

As his vision began to fade in again, he groaned at a sharp pain in his chest. Moving slightly, he was relieved to discover that he didn't have any broken ribs; he'd just been struck sharply on the sternum when they crashed.

Blinking, he found that he was on the floor of the cockpit, or what was left of it. He must have come loose from his seat during the crash. Pushing himself off the ground, he looked around to see Al'cor still in her chair. The entire canopy of the cockpit had been wrenched off by KT, who was standing outside the ship now. She was looking in to confirm that they were alive.

Quickly, he stood up and moved over to Al'cor. She was unconscious, and her bandages looked like they might be getting wet. "Looks like her wound reopened during the crash. We have to get her to a proper medical center."

KT nodded, and reached in to grab the Architect. Gently scooping her from her seat, she pulled her out of the wreckage and held her gingerly. Then, she extended her other hand to grab Tobias, pulling him out and then placing him on the ground.

With his feet firmly planted, he looked around to see that they had come to a stop in the middle of a downtown area. The ship had skidded for a few hundred yards, tearing up the asphalt that made up the middle of the street. Looking at his wrist, he noticed that he had an alert coming over the comms channel. Accepting it, he held it up the front of his helmet.

"This is Four."

" _Oh, thank God. Your ship suddenly spiraled out of control, I thought you were going to crash-"_

He looked at the scene before him. "Well, we _did_ crash, but we're alright." He turned his head up to give KT's chassis a once-over. Aside from a lot of scratches, she seemed to be in good condition. "KT, how far are we from Gates position?"

The Titan was silent for a moment as she accessed the information. "We are approximately one point four miles from her location." She pointed towards the opposite direction of which the ship had crashed. "That's where we need to go."

He nodded. "Alright, then let's get a move on." Running at KT and using his jump kit, he boosted himself onto her back and held onto her shoulder. KT began to run down the street, with him riding on top and Al'cor in her arms.

As they traveled through the streets, Tobias couldn't help but notice that there wasn't really anyone out on the streets; from what he'd heard of Harmony, it was supposed to be a bustling planet full of cities and lively folk; there was a reason that the Militia considered it to be their headquarters. But aside from the occasional rifleman or two, the streets were empty. He supposed that the imminent threat of an alien life-form had something to do with that.

It wasn't long before they reached what appeared to be a building of importance. It was a rather tall building, with glass windows decorating every side of it, and an outward curvature applied to the aforementioned windows. But it looked to be more like a business building than a command center.

High above, Tobias could see damage; something had torn through one side of it, and exploded out the other, shattering every window in the damage's vicinity. But his attention was quickly stolen by the shape of a figure standing outside the building's front entrance.

Hopping off of KT, he moved forward and pulled Gates into a greeting hug. "Hey."

"'Hey' yourself," she replied. "You look like you've seen better days."

He nodded. "KT and I have been following a plan to stop the creatures."

Gates cocked here head. "Yeah, I got your message. So how did all this …" She trailed off as she noticed what was in KT's arms. "What is that?"

He gestured towards Al'cor. "That's the person who made all this possible. She's an Architect, the species that built the fold weapons … and the Inferno." He looked back at Gates. "She was the Inferno before me. And she needs me to activate the Tempest."

Gates held a hand up to stop him. "You're throwing out too many words that I don't have the meaning for." She gave a sigh, and then began to walk back inside. "Come on. Explain it to as we go."

Tobias turned to KT. "Here, give Al'cor to us. We'll get her some medical attention. I want you to stay out here; monitor the comms, let me know if the situation changes. You and I aren't staying for long."

KT gave a synthetic sigh. "Alright. Just … hurry. Please."

He could sense that she was tiring. All of this was wearing him down too. He nodded. "I will. You and I are almost done."

She bent low to hand off the Architect to his and Gates' waiting hands. As she did, he reached forward and gave her the signature pat on the head that she'd grown so fond off. Her optics closed for a moment, enjoying the sensation briefly. Then she stood back up to her full height and turned towards the sky, presumably to do as he'd ordered.

"C'mon," he muttered to Gates, saving his remaining breath for carrying the Architect between the two of them. _Just hold out a little bit longer, KT. We're almost done._

 _We're almost done._

* * *

 _ **A/N: So I have some good news and bad news.**_

 _ **The good news is that I got this chapter out to you guys earlier than anticipated.**_

 _ **The bad news is that it's actually only part of the full chapter, and I have to delay the second part (which is why this was so short).**_

 _ **See, I realized that with the plot direction I was taking, I had a pretty big plot hole left at the end. So, before I finish the rest of what would have been this chapter, I need to sort out some story ideas and see which one I'm going to go with. This may include making small alterations to previous chapters, but I'll let you guys know beforehand if that's the case.**_

 _ **In any matter, I just didn't want to keep you guys waiting too long, so here's what I have that isn't affected by the plot hole. Hope it tides you guys over for a while.**_

 _ **Until the next time,**_

 _ **\- Matteoarts**_


	19. The Last Array

_**A/N: Before you start, I need to get some 'patch notes' out of the way here.**_

 _ **Basically, I edited Chapter 16 (Adam's Ale) and Chapter 17 (Silence) to solve the plot hole that I was forced to resolve. They're not big changes, but without them I wouldn't have been able to remedy the situation. I'd highly recommend re-reading them again to make sure you're aware of what has changed.**_

 _ **With that being said, have fun below!**_

* * *

"When we first started getting reports of those things appearing through various systems, all Militia forces were ordered to evacuate if we could, and relocate to Harmony," Gates explained as they dragged Al'cor between them. "I relayed your message to Briggs, and she decided that it was worth notifying the IMC over. That's when the ceasefire happened. Until all this is over, we're gonna have to play nice."

He grunted, "What, you don't think I can handle that?"

She sighed. "I do have to admit, I have my doubts … mostly because of _who_ we have to play nice with."

Rounding a corner, Tobias analyzed the scene quickly; in the center of what would likely be a lobby for a business building of some sort was a makeshift command center. Various riflemen and Pilots of various colors walked about the area; Hammond Industries, MCOR, Wings of Harmony, and-

 _Apex Predator._

He spotted the white and red color scheme of a somewhat familiar looking individual with their back turned to him and Gates. Upon hearing their footsteps, the person slowly turned to look at the new arrival.

"Oi! It's been a while, hasn't it?"

Tobias didn't exactly know how to react to Blisk's presence here. All he could immediately remember of the man was that he'd hurt KT, and that he'd known Tobias was imprisoned and consistently tortured. This was the man who'd been a part of making his life living hell, and so his thinking slowed to a crawl. He only managed to spit out one word with a monotonous tone.

"You."

Blisk mockingly looked himself up and down for a moment. "Yes, it's indeed me. Astute observation, Four." He wagged a finger in Tobias' direction. "I knew you had the skills, but I didn't know you had the brains too."

Al'cor momentarily forgotten, Tobias let go of her and began to walk forward almost automatically while Gates fumbled with the newfound weight in her arms. He reached out and grabbed the straps of Blisk's front armor plate, holding him up. The mercenary didn't even fight back, he just grinned smugly at him. Meanwhile, all the other Pilots and soldiers around them turned in shock to look at the sudden scene before them.

"Four!"

He ignored Gates' cry of protest behind him, and growled at the gun-for-hire. "You think this is funny? You had me tortured for two years. _Two fucking years,_ asshole _._ "

Blisk made a _tsk_ sound. "Actually, I told you before; I never thought torture would break you, and I turned out to be right." He gestured towards Tobias' left hand, missing two fingers. "When that happened, I made sure to put in a word so that they didn't damage you too much after that. Even in spite of our obvious dislike of one another, I had respect for you. I may enjoy the thrill of the fight, but there's no honor in what was happening to you."

Blisk didn't need to know just how close they'd actually come to breaking him; his thoughts flashed back to the almost catatonic state that Gates and KT had found him in. But what he was really focused on was what Blisk had just revealed.

"… What?"

"That's enough!" A pair of hands grabbed Tobias, and firmly pulled him back and away from Blisk. He held on for a moment longer, but let go when he realized what a scene he was making. He looked to see a male Pilot separating him from Blisk.

"Trying to play the hero even now, eh?" Blisk chuckled in reference to the Pilot.

"Shut up," the Pilot said. Blisk shrugged, and crossed his arms obediently.

Tobias looked at the Pilot. "Who are you?"

"That's Cooper," Gates said frustratedly, and reasonably so considering that she was now supporting all of Al'cor's weight. He quickly rushed to help her. "He's a relatively new Pilot, and helped out just as much as you did with preventing the destruction of Harmony."

Tobias turned towards him. "Yeah, I heard about you. You destroyed the fold weapon. Sorry about your Titan."

He couldn't see Cooper's expression underneath that helmet, but he didn't sound too miffed. "Actually, I've been grounded here on Harmony because our scientists are testing a theory about reverse engineering a copy of BT stored in my helmet." He shrugged. "No real progress yet, but maybe they can bring him back."

Well that was certainly an interesting development, but not what he wanted to focus on right now.

Unfortunately, it seemed that a confrontation would have to wait. Gates glared at him. "This is what I meant about playing nice. Blisk is the head of IMC forces right now."

The mercenary nodded. "Marder put me in charge of forces within Harmony's system. God knows what the hell Spyglass is doing; neither he or the Remnant fleet have communicated in the last 24 hours. Part of me thinks the bastard is waiting this all out."

"They've been evacuating their people here too," Gates further explained, "to help with strengthening defense and all that."

Tobias shook his head. "None of that is going to matter unless I activate the Tempest."

Gates cocked her head. "You said that earlier. What is that?"

After they handed Al'cor off to some medics who left to treat her wounds, he began to explain his discovery with KT; how this all was a plan set in motion millions of years ago by the Architects, how Al'cor was responsible for him being the Inferno, exactly what the Seed and the Amalgamates were, and what they were trying to do; he ended by telling them about what he'd been trying to accomplish for the last day or so.

"So Harmony is the last array world," he finished. "Somewhere on this planet is an array that will cause the Tempest to occur, and sever the connection between the Seed and its 'other' in another reality."

"So we've got you to thank for all this?" clarified Blisk with a skeptical tone. "After all, you said that you sent it to our time."

He glared at the mercenary. "If I hadn't done it, then we would never have existed; all life would've been wiped out millions of years before we even evolved."

Blisk nodded. "Fair point."

Gates seemed to be thinking something over. "If this 'Seed' can truly appear anywhere, why hasn't it arrived already to kill us? Didn't you say it knows where we are?"

He actually had a theory about that. "Think about a dart board. You know where the target is, but it's still kinda difficult to nail down. So until you can land it, you just keep trying to see what sticks. This thing has been throwing its forces around to spread as much as possible, but precision is a completely different thing." He shuddered. "Still, I wouldn't put this off for too long. What do Briggs and Graves have to say on all of this?"

She shrugged. "We lost communication with them eight hours ago. Our communications relay was damaged by some wreckage from a ship we shot down in orbit. We can send messengers out, but without knowing what's out there … it's best to stick here. We've got short range communication within the system, so that should be sufficient for your purposes until this is all over."

" _Tobias,"_ came KT's voice through his helmet, _"there are some new arrivals here."_

He was about to ask her about what she meant when he heard the patter of footsteps behind him, and he turned towards the entrance to the building. Jogging up to the command center was Vale and Tyra.

The Simulacrum looked him over and nodded approvingly. "Glad to see you're all in one piece," she joked. "Gates told us about your suicide mission. Thought you were gonna get yourself killed for sure."

"Not for a lack of trying," he replied, "but I'm here now."

Tyra turned towards Gates. "Ma'am, we're here as you requested."

The Captain then looked at Tobias. "You say you need to find this last array. Well, they're gonna help you get there. All you need to do is find it. Any idea of how to do that?"

He furrowed his brow. He couldn't do a structural scan here, there were too many buildings that would cause interference. And he couldn't just pull up the information mentally; the Inferno was a record of all the Architects history, not their future. And Al'cor had turned him into it before the arrays had even been built.

He realized with a start that he had no idea how to find it. Maybe he could have asked Al'cor, but she was out of commission for the time being. He had to make do without her. Everyone was relying on him here, and he was blanking-

Something flashed in his mind, and he looked at the group around him.

"The arrays create some sort of stasis field when they're inactive," he explained. "They create gravitational anomalies, make loose objects hover, stuff like that. I don't know how far the range on it can go, but it might be at the epicenter of an event like that, if you know of any."

He looked around, disappointed that all of them seemed to be at a loss for how to reply. None of them were natives to Harmony, so they wouldn't-

"Maybe the Floating Gardens?"

His head snapped towards Cooper. "What?"

"The Floating Gardens," Cooper repeated. "They're somewhat of an attraction here on Harmony. Lastimosa told me about them while he privately trained me. Said that it was a place of beauty, plains of grass where rocks and water defy nature. They hover above the ground, and no one on Harmony knows why. It was one of his favorite places."

He looked at Tobias. "From what he told me, this city of Chorus was actually built nearby it because the early settlers liked the site so much."

Tobias snapped his fingers. "That's gotta be it! Anyone got a map?"

…

He jabbed a finger at one section of the chart that one of Blisk's men had found. "Alright, this is Chorus. Here's the command center. And the Floating Gardens …" He moved his finger in a line towards a large circle of wildlife outside the city boundaries. "… are here. Looks like it's got a pretty big radius, nearly two and a half miles in diameter, give-or-take. The good news is that there's a road that leads directly to it from the city. Must be popular with the people who live here."

"So what's the bad news?" Tyra asked. He sighed.

"Bad news is that we're gonna have to make it out of the city on foot, or at least on Titan. From what I gather, we can't spare any dropships since any that aren't coming in are being immediately sent to orbit to form a defensive line. And we don't have any ground vehicles."

Blisk nodded. "Sounds like you three better get walking then. I'll have IMC forces begin spreading throughout the city, make sure that all of our bases are covered."

Gates reciprocated his nod. "The 6-4, Cooper, and I will set up defenses here. Any MCOR Pilots and riflemen we can spare will be directed here to the command center. The WOH will help out in the skies above."

Blisk looked towards Tobias. "I know we have our differences, but that doesn't mean I don't respect you. There was a reason I offered you a place at my side." He whistled somberly. "This here is a task for the dragonhearted, Four. And I don't doubt that you've got it in you."

He was shocked by the sincerity in Blisk's parting words. This had to have been the most serious he'd ever seen the man, and … well, what he'd said had been unexpected. He gave a slight nod towards the mercenary out of respect, and stood up. "Alright. Vale, Tyra, let's get out of-"

Suddenly, the rising noise of a wailing siren pierced the air. He turned towards Gates. "What is that?"

She seemed frozen. "That's the weather warning system. It was the only alarm that we were able to rig up, and I told them to ring it if the situation changed."

On cue, open comm channels began to light up with transmissions from high in the sky. _"Commander Blisk, we've got a massive number of bogeys that just appeared outside of orbit-"_

" _Captain Gates, we are moving to intercept. But I don't think we can take them all on-"_

" _What the hell?"_

" _Holy shit, what is that thing?! Are you seeing this-"_

" _It's HUGE! There's no way we can-"_

" _Foxtrot, attack formation! Focus on those pods before they breach the line-"_

" _Foxtrot, this is Echo! Pods have broken the line, I repeat, pods have broken the line! To anyone on the ground, you have incoming!"_

Gates spun towards him sharply. "Tobias, go! We're out of time!"

Heeding her word, he rushed towards the entrance and ran into the sunlight. KT stood there, waiting for his arrival. "Tobias … I think the situation has changed."

Looking up at the sky, he could see a mass of shapes of gunfire flitting about. While the majority of the ships were above orbit trying to stop pods from coming in, a select group had fallen into atmosphere to help clean up stragglers. But it wasn't enough.

Streaks of black came crashing down in a massive range of distribution. There had to have been at least ten that had landed somewhere in the city, and he knew how much damage just one of those things could do. They'd spread easily enough on an armed IMC outpost. With a civilian population, who knew how quickly they could take over?

That wasn't the worst of it. Looking high into the sky past orbit, he saw a sight that truly rendered him speechless. All he could do was stare at it as more comm channels lit up.

" _It's like a moon or some shit-"_

" _Wait, is that thing_ _ **alive**_ _? It's moving!"_

" _Jesus, I can't believe this-"_

It was a massive moon-like orb, with a surface almost completely blackened and charred like the Amalgamates' 'skin'. Interspersed all over were tendrils of some kind of material. From here on the ground, he couldn't really see what they were made of; but if he had to take a guess, he'd say they were composed of organic material. Bodies, flesh, whatever it could get its hands on. They swung around like roots of a plant, and he knew what he was looking at.

"The Seed," he breathed.

Evidently, it had found a way to break out of the frozen planet. He supposed that without the Arks and working fold weapons to hold it place, it wasn't too difficult for it to escape from its prison.

KT locked gazes with him, and he could sense her apprehension behind that blue eye of hers. "I can't see us walking out of this one, Tobias." Slowly, her optics turned toward the scene in the sky above them.

He heard the weariness in her voice, the tire of fighting. He felt it in himself too. The desire to be free of all this.

He gave a heavy sigh. "One final effort, Kay."

She too gave a sigh. "When you told me we could travel the stars together one day, I didn't think this was what you had in mind." She chuckled. "When we first met in that frozen forest … I never would have imagined that we'd end up here. Back then we were just two enemies who banded together for survival. Now …"

She looked at him. "… I can't imagine life without you, Tobias. You're my world."

KT seemed to have accepted the fact that they were probably going to die. He swallowed hard, and met her gaze. "And you're mine, Kay. Are you ready?"

She gave a shuddering breath. "No. Are you?"

"No," he admitted. "Are you with me?"

"Always," she replied. The waver in her voice had disappeared, replaced with a tone of courage and resolve. "Together to the end."

"Together to the end," he repeated. "Let's find that array."

* * *

 _ **A/N: As always, reviews are appreciated below. Especially after we've now started the final arc. I hope you all are ready. Can't wait to read your reactions.**_

 _ **Until the next time,**_

 _ **\- Matteoarts**_


	20. The Eleventh Hour

_**A/N: A fair warning, to those who have expressed their sensitivity in the past. This chapter … it's messy. And I'm not going to have an author's note at the bottom, because I feel it would detract from the impact of the situation.**_

 _ **With that said, enjoy the chapter.**_

* * *

The two medics on standby in the temporary infirmary they'd rigged up were having quite the field day.

With these pods raining down now, ground forces were finding it difficult to keep them back. The damn things just kept coming, an onslaught of wave after wave of horrifying creatures. Morbidly, they'd realized fairly quickly that they didn't have much of a job; anyone who found themselves on the wrong end of those things was probably not going to make it to an infirmary. Most of them ended up being converted, or mutilated beyond recognition.

In fact, the only wounds that had come in so far had been from firearms; apparently, the damn things knew how to handle weapons despite the fact that their entire body could be used as one. They'd seen more than a few riflemen and Pilots alike come into the med-wing with bullets in the arm or leg. What these 'Amalgamates' lacked in accuracy, they made up for with sheer numbers and force. None of them needed to be accurate when there were ten of them firing simultaneously in the same direction. While these soldiers may not die, they definitely weren't going to be back in the fight until all of this was over … one way or another.

Not to mention that they had the rather … _unusual_ patient in a bed at the end of the room. From what they'd been told, it was some kind of alien, a female that was helping humanity to stop whatever was happening with the invasion. Not knowing its proper anatomy, they'd settled for stopping the bleeding and letting it rest. Hopefully there'd be some proper answers soon.

An explosion could be heard outside, and both medics turned towards the source as the lights flickered and the walls shook. One of them turned to the other. "Damn, that was close."

She shook her head. "Too close. Those things must be getting closer."

The former shrugged his shoulders. "Nothing we can do about it. Just gotta wait it out-"

From seemingly nowhere, a staticky screech pierced their minds. They didn't so much hear the cry as they _felt_ it. Looking towards the end of the room, they saw the alien kicking wildly as it woke up. Quickly, they rushed to its aid.

"Calm down!" the male medic ordered, "You're safe! It's alright!"

There was a momentary pause as the creature looked at them (at least it seemed to, it didn't have eyes), and assessed the situation. After another few seconds, they felt a voice speak to them mentally; _Where is the Inferno?_

They looked at each other in confusion. "Uh, we don't-"

 _Tobias!_ it clarified frustratedly, _Lieutenant Four, the one who brought me here! He needs to know what awaits him!_

The female medic understood. "We don't know, Captain Gates would have a better answer. I can grab her if you like-"

Before she'd finished speaking, the alien had fallen back onto its cot in apparent regret. _I have to warn him. He doesn't know. Forgive me._

…

With heavy footfalls trailing their every step, three Titans ran through the streets of chorus. KT lead the trio while Skids and Cee followed closely behind.

Tobias guided them towards their destination. From the map they'd looked over, it seemed that every street converged into a backroad that led out of the city and towards the Floating Gardens. That convergence point was north of their position, roughly three miles away. Just under two by now, if they'd covered enough ground.

The bad news is that more pods were falling every minute. The calm of the city had quickly turned to a war zone, and then back to a more sinister calm. They'd come across groups of other soldiers and Titans fighting for survival against the onslaught. If they infantry didn't fall to the weaponized Amalgamates, then they quickly fell prey to the creatures physical advantages instead.

Horrifically, he'd seen several of them group up to tackle a Titan and wrench its Pilot out of the cockpit. Evidently, being in a Titan did not guarantee your safety.

Peering out of an alleyway, Tobias used KT's camera systems to scan the surrounding area. They'd come across a roundabout of sorts, and he could spy a small group of Amalgamates thirty yards away. Waving KT's arm to beckon Vale and Tyra forward, the three of them piloted their Titans into the open and opened fire on the walking corpses. They went down rather easily, and he beckoned towards one section of the roundabout. "This way!"

He wished that they could stay and help the citizens fight off their attackers, but it would truthfully be more beneficial to get to the array as quickly as possible and activate it. On top of the Amalgamates invading every nook of the city they could squeeze their bodies into, the Seed was beginning to reign hell on the orbital defense that the Wings of Harmony were pitting against it. Looking up at the sky, hardly a minute went by without seeing an orange blossom of fire appear in high orbit.

Whatever its plan was, the Seed was moving in on Harmony. Fast.

Racing through downtown, Tobias checked the map on the HUD shared between him and KT; only half a mile to go, and then they were out of the city. After that, it was less than a total of four miles to the center of the Gardens-

" _Contact!"_ came Tyra's voice from behind. Following the direction of Cee's outstretched arm, he saw what she was pointing at; a large horde of Amalgamates directly in their path of where they needed to go.

"Dammit," he muttered, "we're gonna have to push through them. Move!"

The three of them charged as a unit, opening fire with their respective weapons. As the only Vanguard, KT's chain gun was pretty decent for crowd control. Vale seemed to prefer using Skids' sword to slice them apart, and Cee's incendiary traps were most efficient in territory control. Together, they forced their way through the crowd of monsters at their feet.

Unfortunately, it didn't remain that way. A group of mutilated humans took notice and began to fight back. Using weapons they'd been holding when they'd been converted, they began to unload on the Titans. Most of their automatics didn't do much, but two of them had MGL's; heavy artillery against a Titan. Vale, being in the faster chassis, was able to dodge their attacks a bit more easily, and quickly moved ahead to where their projectiles couldn't hit her.

Unfortunately, Tyra and Cee began to take some heavy punishment. _"Shields are failing, I need support!"_

Tobias obliged, and quickly put him and KT into the line of fire instead. Selecting the two as targets, he mowed them down efficiently and turned back towards Tyra. "Advance-"

His words caught in his throat as he saw what was behind Tyra. He knew that there had been a lot of them in front, but there seemed to be just as many Amalgamates behind them. And they were doing something that he would have rather not seen …

Clumping their bodies together, many of them began to mesh into one another. Flesh melted into other flesh, and any holes were quickly sealed by the sickly orange glop that gave them life.

" _What the hell are they doing?"_ whispered Tyra over the comms, horror creeping into her voice. He had no real clue until he saw them form some kind of appendage from the charred and blackened meat.

"I think they're making something worse," he replied, that same sense of foreboding now entering his own voice.

After another second or so, they had finished. Now, amidst the herd of other 'normal' Amalgamates, there stood a massive one made of many others that had come together. It walked on four disgusting tendril-like legs, and those same teeth formations that he'd encountered before began to spring up all over its 'body.' They grew sharp, and wicked to the touch.

Unexpectedly, it gave a scream of fury and charged them.

Tyra had no time to react with Cee's slow mobility before the melded-Amalgamate reached her and pounced. The teeth began to grind away at the metal of the Scorch, tearing off pieces wherever they caught resistance. She tried to hold it off with a thermal shield, but that only enraged it further; splitting apart a hole where its 'head' would be, it clamped down on Cee's right arm and shook violently. After several tugs between it and the Titan, the arm ripped away of its socket.

Tobias ran towards her, trying to help. He was stopped by a new wave of other Amalgamates, however. Surging forward in the wake of their new advantage, they threatened to overwhelm him if he proceeded. He was forced to move his aim to them instead, and clear out the filth before he could do anything to help Tyra.

Meanwhile, Vale looked to them as she dealt with her own, albeit smaller, onslaught of creatures. _"Tyra! Four!"_

Tobias waved her away. "Go! We'll meet you at the city's exit!"

He saw the Ronin hesitate for only a moment longer, then turn and run.

Shifting his attention back to Tyra, he moved in. He tried to pump lead into the massive Amalgamate, but it wasn't going down without a fight. Using one of its 'legs' to pin Tyra and Cee to the side of a short building, it snapped menacingly at his Titan. Having seen what had happened with Cee's arm when Tyra moved too close, he didn't want to risk that happening to KT. He opted to remain further back and continue to fill it with bullets.

Finally, it seemed to be taking effect. Chunks of it were ripping away, allowing orange goop to seep into the street. With a high pitched howl of anger, it gave its final stand.

Using its front two legs, it grabbed the heavily damaged Scorch, and threw it over the roof of the building and into the accommodating street. He watched it sail over with Tyra still inside, and winced at the metallic crash of destruction that he heard on the other side of the row of buildings.

Focusing its full attention on him and KT, it charged again. Thinking quickly, he knelt down as it leapt forward, and caught it underneath. Transitioning its momentum into force and using it against it, he slammed it down into its back with its head, and presumably its main nervous system, directly in front of him. Not skipping a beat, he unloaded the full clip of KT's chain gun into it, splitting apart muscle and bone and sending flayed flesh soaring overhead.

With a final heave, the melded-Amalgamate moved no more.

He turned to look over the top of the rooftop where Tyra had been thrown, but saw that even more waves of Amalgamates were coming. KT noticed too.

" _Tobias-"_

"Go!" he ordered. "Meet up with Vale and Skids, I'll see you there!"

Without waiting for her to protest, he popped her hatch and leapt towards the rooftop. Grappling the ledge, he swung himself over and landed on his feet. He only turned back for a moment to ensure that KT was indeed following his command. Watching her move out of sight towards the city exit, he focused back on the task at hand and sprinted across the rooftop.

Reaching the other side, he looked over to see a painful sight. The Scorch had flown right over the rooftop and crashed into the side of the buildings opposite of Tobias. In turn, the foundation had crumbled, and most of the building's structure had come crashing down on top of the already heavily damaged Titan. Cee was lying on his side, with the cockpit of the chassis almost completely buried under rubble. He could just barely make out Cee's optics and-

"Tyra!" he cried out. He saw that her upper torso was poking out underneath the bottom of the pile of rubble, near Cee's hull but not next to it. It looked like she'd tried to pop the hatch, but had been overcome by the debris when doing so. It reminded him of when he'd tried to force KT's hatch open when they'd been buried under the snow on Erebus.

She was currently trying to stave off the other Amalgamates meandering about. They were faster than they appeared, and more than one came too close before she was able to blast it with her Mozambique. He hopped down from the roof, pulled his Wingman from his side, and helped her with keeping them at bay.

Once he was sure they were relatively safe for a minute or so, he looked at the part of Cee's data core that he could see.

There was no light that illuminated it. The core was completely busted, and Cee was dead for all intents and purposes. He felt a pang of regret towards the Titan's destruction, but he had another matter to attend to.

He knelt down to where Tyra's torso poked out on the ground, underneath the tons of rubble that had come from the building they'd crushed. "C'mon, let's get you out of-"

"I can't-" she groaned in pain, "my legs … I can't feel them. And- and my back is pinned …."

He looked over what she was indicating, and his spirits fell. There was a rather large chunk of debris that had landed right on top of her, and now kept her pinned. The only reason it hadn't completely crushed her was because of the complementary chunks of concrete and drywall on her sides holding it up. But they also kept her legs from moving forward, and they were probably pinned as well by something else.

The most likely scenario was that the support that had fallen on her had broken her lower spine, and she was probably paralyzed.

He refused to accept what was in front of him. "No, there's got to be another-"

He jumped as Tyra shot at something behind him with her sidearm. One of the Amalgamates had gotten too close for comfort. He looked around to see that they were beginning to group up in larger numbers now. It wouldn't be long before they were on top of them.

He looked at the pile of rocks and concrete keeping Tyra from moving. It was far too large for him to move by himself, he'd need a Titan. But KT and Skids were too far away to do anything by this point, and Cee was completely inactive.

It was just him.

Futilely, he tried to move bits of it anyway.

"Four …" coughed Tyra from beneath him.

"I can do this," he cut her off, "I can do this. You're gonna get out of this, you're gonna-"

"Tobias!" she practically yelled with what volume she had left.

He stopped moving, and knelt down to where she beckoned him.

Moving her free hand, she pulled off her helmet and tossed it aside. She had cropped blonde hair, typical military length. Her eyes were a pale grey, and her face was littered with scars from previous battles.

Coughing again, she spat blood onto the ground, and looked at him. "You've … you've got to get out of here. Activate the arrays, and- and end this."

"Tyra …" he whispered, unable to offer any other words of comfort to his dying friend.

"Hey," she said a bit more warmly, "we … we h-had a good run, huh? Some g-good memories, hopefully?"

He just sat there, unsure of what to say or how to react. Slowly, he nodded his head. "Yeah, we … w-we did."

She reached over to him, and pulled something from his belt. Looking at her hand, he saw that she'd grabbed a frag grenade.

"No way in hell I'm letting those things take me," she spat. "I'll make sure of that." She looked towards south of the street, where the horde was beginning to move in earnest. "You … you better hurry, they're closing in."

She raised her Mozambique, and gave a mirthless smirk. "D-Don't worry, I've g-got this. I'll hold 'em off while you r-run."

"Please, Tyra-" he tried one last time, but she shook her head.

"Go! N-Now!" she ordered. "And d-don't look back. Just … tell Amelia it was a g-good death." She laughed, a few tears falling down her cheeks. "She expects n-no less of me … she's g-got too h-high of standards."

He looked down at the ground, trying to keep the situation from overwhelming him. Locking gazes with her, he gave her a final nod before turning and sprinting down the street.

As he ran, he heard her call out to the Amalgamates behind him. "Well … well then?! C-Come on! Come at m-me, you ugly bastards! I'll die with my fist down your throat before you take me!"

He followed her command, and didn't look back. He only ran, and listened.

 _BAM!_

 _BAM!_

He heard the screeches of the Amalgamates closing in as he grappled a rooftop and hurtled himself onto it, avoiding the creature-ridden streets below.

 _BAM!_

 _BAM!_

 _BAM!_

He shook as he heard her swear, and then start to scream in pain. There were no more gunshots, only-

 _ **FWOOM!**_

He heard the explosion, and finally turned to see smoke and flame erupting from the blast point. Everything in a fifteen foot radius of the blast had been obliterated. Mercifully, the rising smoke obstructed most of the origin of the grisly scene.

Swallowing hard, he felt numb. Failing to notice the tears streaking down his own cheeks inside of his helmet, he turned and continued his progress towards the city exit, and eventually the array.


	21. Harmony

Yelling with fury in her voice, Gates rose up from her kneeling position behind the cover of a crate, and let the monstrosities have it with her R-201.

She felt a dark satisfaction at seeing the bodies of the Amalgamates get torn up by her bullets, some of them wearing Militia armor. It relieved both her need for revenge against them killing her buddies, and her protective instinct over her friends. In any case, she knew that she was giving former comrades and allies peace if she killed their new forms.

More and more rapidly, voices filled up the comms.

" _More pods are breaking through, our orbital defense keeps losing ships! We must have lost-"_

" _-nearly forty percent of Chorus is infected, we have to keep these things off the civilians' backs! Place more enforcement at the shelters-"_

"- _center is under siege! I repeat, city center is- AGGHH-"_

Off to the left, Bear stood with his back to a support beam. She had Cooper, Davis, and Droz helping guard the rear entrance and the infirmary. She, Bear, and Blisk, along with an assortment of riflemen and other Pilots were trying to keep the front from being overtaken.

He turned and fired his weapon, only to jerk back in shock when a ricochet bullet from the creature's ranks struck him in the shoulder. He crumpled to the ground, holding it while swearing profusely.

Being the closest one to him, Blisk vaulted over their cover and dragged Bear back into relative safety while Gates gave them both covering fire. Before now, she never would have thought she'd see the mercenary stick his neck out for Militia; but today had been a very unusual day.

Blisk handed him a rag. "Keep pressure on the wound, that should slow the bleeding."

Bear's body tensed up at the pain coming in full force, and he called over to Gates, "How long until Four gets that array up?!"

She took aim as a particularly fast Amalgamate almost crossed the threshold of the building's defense. It was distracted by a Pilot running next to it, and it lashed out to grab its would-be victim. It was surprised to find that the Pilot was actually a hologram, and it had only just realized its folly when Gates rounds began tearing through its body. Quickly, Gates waved some thanks at the female Holo-Pilot who had helped her take it down.

"I don't know," she replied, "but we've got to hold out until he does. One way or another, this'll all be over soon!"

"That's quite the optimism," Blisk said sarcastically. She didn't comment on it, instead thinking to herself internally of just how much was counting on him.

 _C'mon Tobias. Hurry._

…

He couldn't tell how long he'd been running, only that it was all he knew at the moment.

Every step. Every huff of breath, forcing oxygen into his tired lungs. It gave him a process, a diversion to focus on as he sprinted through the downtown section of Chorus. It kept him from coming to terms with the awful scene that he'd taken part of, and breaking down at the prospect of never seeing one of his oldest friends again.

He almost didn't notice it when he nearly ran headfirst into KT and Skids.

"Tobias!" KT called forcefully. "Stop running!"

Finally registering her voice, he stopped and looked up blankly. She seemed rather concerned. "I've been calling your name since you rounded that bend. Are you alright?"

"Where's Tyra and CH?" questioned Vale, the Ronin moving around to look for them. She glanced about, as though expecting to see them running not too far behind. "I don't see her …"

He closed his eyes, and sank to his knees to catch his breath. He couldn't … he didn't have the heart to tell her …

Vale seemed to suddenly comprehend from his body language. "No … no, God, _no_ _no no …_ " Skids took a few steps forward. "TYRA!" she yelled over the comms, "RESPOND! That's an order!"

Her cry was only met with static.

She and Skids took one half-hearted step towards the city.

"I'm sorry," he choked out. "Amelia, I … I couldn't save her." He looked at her Titan. "Right up to the end … she fought until her last breath."

He heard her give a synthetic sniffle. "Of course she did. She was a warrior. A damn good one." She rotated Skids' body to look at their six. "We have to move, they're coming."

For as affected by Tyra's death as Vale was, he was thankful that it wasn't clouding her awareness. He turned and saw that she was right. Another wave of Amalgamates was flooding through every crossroad of the city now, converging on their location near the exit. He looked down the final avenue, noting that there was only a few hundred yards between them and the city limit.

"Alright," he agreed, a level of hoarseness in his voice, "let's move."

KT knelt down to allow him better access, and popped her hatch. He hopped in, and easily linked with her. Control transitioned to him in one smooth effort, and he and Vale began to run down the last road before open fields and and the Gardens awaited them.

Overhead, several dropships flew by and helped them out. Bullets rained down upon the mass of creatures chasing after them, shooting them apart to reduce their numbers. Unfortunately, it seemed that they hadn't expected so many of the population to have been converted already. They hadn't killed even a fifth of the wave chasing after them before they were forced to loop around for another pass.

" _There's too many!"_ Vale called out, Skids' sword dicing any that came too close into pieces.

He shook his head, and urged KT's body forward. "We just have to make it to the exit, and we're good. With any luck they'll stay in the city!"

Vale was far ahead of him, less than a hundred yards to the gate now. _"What makes you think that?"_

He tried to keep pace with her, but the fact was that the Vanguard wasn't as fast as the Ronin. She paused, and waited for him to catch up. As she did so, he explained, "They seem to be going for highly populated areas, they want to take out the city first. More humans means more Amalgamates. They won't have that outside the city walls!"

" _So they'll just stop and turn around?"_ she questioned.

He grunted, "Well, that's the current theory I'm running with. We'll see how well it holds up when we actually get outside, and make our way to the array-"

As soon as he spoke the word array, his mind was pierced by pain once more. His vision turned red, just a massive wall of blurred red.

 _ **THE ARRAY IS CLOSE. YOU SEEK TO FIND IT.**_

He saw an image of the map he'd used to approximate its location flash in his mind.

 _ **NO … YOU**_ _ **KNOW**_ _ **WHERE TO FIND IT.**_

He jerked uncontrollably, and seized up. KT's chassis, since she was currently linked with him, experienced the same motion and tipped onto its side, twitching. He hit his head on the side of the cockpit, but was unable to do anything but stare about the cabin in a state of paralysis and pain.

Vale saw their predicament. _"Four, KT!"_ He couldn't see her through the ocular systems, but he felt the rumble of a Titan's footsteps as she presumably approached.

 _ **YOU HAVE FAILED, INFERNO. WE WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO FIND IT. YOU HAVE BUT ONE OPTION NOW; JOIN US.**_

 _ **JOIN US.**_

He could do nothing as darkness crept in around the edges of his vision, and consumed him. He fell down … down … down …

…

 _He pushed himself off the ground, and looked around._

 _He found himself in a void-scape. The ground was rocky, and jagged in a way that no rock would naturally form. He appeared to be on a plateau of sorts, a mountainous peak that poked out from a layer of fog that obscured most of the ground._

 _Looking up, he saw that the sky was a dark red and blue. Not a purple, as though they had combined, but mingled as though the two colors were fighting for dominance over the sky. Patches of each stretched far off into the distance, and while he could see clearly into the horizon, he could not see any end to wherever he was._

 _He held his hands in front of his face. He didn't see what he expected to, which was the gloves of his suit. Instead, he saw that while they were definitely his hands, they seemed to be composed of some kind of light, or fire. He was a bright white, with tints of bright blue on the edges of the flames that licked his form. Perhaps this was his essence, or his non-physical form. Who knew what to think anymore?_

 _Wind tore around his location, the only sound present in the entirety of the void-scape. He didn't think this was a real place; rather, it was a personal hell that he'd been flung into, a prison within his own mind for him to come to terms with reality. He sank to his knees, recalling what the Seed had just said to him._

 **YOU HAVE FAILED, INFERNO.**

 **JOIN US.**

 _He sat there, unable to think of a solution out of this. Did he even want to?_

 _The Seed was attacking Harmony in full force._

 _Civilian populations all over the galaxy had come under attack from the Amalgamates._

 _Tyra, CH, and who knew how many others were dead … all because of him._

 _Even if it had been a necessity, he was still ultimately the one who had sent the Seed into the present. Would it have been better for humanity to have never existed, to have simply not even begun rather than to experience the pain it was enduring right now?_

 _The Amalgamation was almost a reality. Maybe he should just let it happen. Just let this universe become a statistic amongst the many others that had already been consumed._

 _Were these thoughts his own? Or just the Seed planting them there, trying to convince him to give in? He didn't know anymore. He didn't care._

 _All was lost._

…

 _What was that?_

 _He heard the small voice of someone very familiar. Not truly words, but some kind of cry nonetheless. Like someone who was trying to speak in a language of the mind rather than the mouth. Someone he knew …_

 _There it was again!_

 _He twisted his head around slowly, looking to the source of the voice. He was shocked to see another figure in the void-scape with him, approaching him from behind. They were humanoid like him, and similarly appeared to be made of flame or light. However, their colors were flipped to be the opposite of his; instead of white with blue accents, they seemed to be composed of a bright blue with white tongues of flame surrounding the edges of their form._

 _He found that he could not speak, or at least not like he would normally. He tried to communicate in that same way that they had, with emotions and feeling. He wanted to know if they were alright._

 _They stepped closer, and nodded somewhat fearfully. There were no specific features on them, no facial aspects like eyes or a mouth, but he noticed the generally feminine traits on the figure; the generous curvature of the body, the fact that they were shorter than he was. From that, he was able to guess her gender._

 _She looked over her body made of light and flame. She seemed entranced by it, as though it were a brand new experience for her. He felt wonder radiating off of her, and then it disappeared as she remembered where they were._

 _She made another cry, one that he could garner the meaning of._

 _She was afraid._

 _He looked around, and directed his thoughts toward her. Who was she? How did she get here? He thought that this was all happening in his mind._

 _A pleasant hum manifested itself in his head, and the realization of what had happened was seemingly dropped into it by her, much like a child throwing a coin into a fountain. When the Seed had thrown him here, she'd been taken as well. His mind was bonded to hers, more-so in that moment than when it had ever probed him before._

 _Kay._

 _She moved closer still, and he could see that she was looking to him for reassurance. She'd never been here before, hadn't seen the visions like he had in his nightmares, or when speaking to the Architect. How did they leave?_

 _A gentle noise much like a sigh escaped him. He didn't know how to get out of here. But what was the point of trying at all?_

 _She seemed rather affronted by his willingness to give up. Never had she seen him admit defeat._

 _He sat back down on the ground facing her. They'd never fought an enemy like the Seed before. How many universes had already fallen to the Amalgamation? What hope did they have?_

 _From somewhere out in the void, he felt a presence become satisfied with his resignation. It wanted him to surrender to its will, to join it._

 _Walking over, she held out her hands for him to take them. Confusedly, he accepted, and she helped him back onto his feet. She placed a hand on his shoulder gently, and he watched as the colors between his white and her blue flames merged into one neutral blend of the two where they touched._

 _Those other realities didn't have_ him _in them. She believed in him._

 _Wrapping her arms around him, she pulled him into a hug. He just needed to believe in himself._

 _That earlier presence grew discomforted, worried that he would listen to her. He made a decision; would he wallow in self-loathing, or stand up against this last enemy?_

 _His doubt assuaged by her comfort, he felt a warmth return to him, along with his conviction. He reciprocated, bulling her closer to him as well._

 _The Seed's presence faded away, held off for the time being._

 _After a moment, she stepped back upon noticing something peculiar. She pointed to his chest. Looking down, he saw a golden-spark, an ember of sorts coming out of his chest. As he watched, a string of light emitted from it, and began to spiral around her like it was inspecting her._

 _He saw that the ember in his chest was now half the size it had been before, the other half now swirling around her. They both watched in awe as one end of it suddenly stopped around her navel, and then moved up to penetrate her chest. It didn't seem painful; rather, it seemed that it was imbuing her with its power, whatever it was. After a moment, it had moved its entirety within her, and it pulsed in the center of her breast._

 _Looking down, he saw that his own had echoed the action, a simultaneous experience shared by the two of them. Both of their embers continued to pulse as one, much like a single heartbeat that connected them._

 _She moved back to within arm's reach of him, and held him as he held her._

 _One final effort._

 _He felt a grim acceptance, but also a new bout of courage raise his spirits. One final effort._

 _She tilted her head, and gave a gentle croon. Was he ready to leave?_

 _He nodded. He was ready._

 _Still, she hesitated. Now, he was the one who gave a small trill of confusion. What was the matter?_

 _She looked over her form, soon to be gone when they left the void. He felt a sense of desire come from her, but he couldn't quite get what she was expressing. She wanted to …_

 _Either she wasn't being specific, or she was hiding what she meant. He queried again, what was it that-?_

 _Locking her fingers around the back of his neck, she gently eased his head down towards her._

 _Tilting her chin up, she pressed her face against his._

 _There were no lips that joined them; this was more than a kiss, it was an intimacy between their very souls. A joining of the very culmination of their being. He had no words to describe what was happening to them, other than they had truly become one._

 _Was this what Al'cor had told him about? How much more personal the relationship between Architects was? This wasn't just a simple union of the body, but of the mind. The flames of her face grew white as his grew blue._

 _He felt a sense of radiant joy emanate from her as she hummed; she'd finally seen what he'd told her for years, and what Al'cor had repeated when talking of her sapience. Her physical body may be artificial, yet her feelings were anything but. She was a person, one with a soul the same as any human._

 _And she wanted to share hers with him._

 _The wind howled around them, growing louder as they remained strong in their embrace, blind to all but each other. Slowly, everything began to blur and fade to a bright white … brighter … brighter …_

…

His eyes shot open, a throbbing headache making itself abundantly present. He raised a hand to the side of his head, and felt something wet squish between his head and the inside of his helmet .

As he watched, KT's ocular systems came back online at roughly the same time. They were still on the ground, having fallen on their side. But he wasn't focused on that at the moment.

"Kay …" he whispered. "I _saw_ you."

She whispered back, in just as much awe of the experience as he was in. _"And I saw you."_

Both knew that the other was referring to their true selves; when all the disadvantages of a physical form were stripped away, they'd seen what was underneath the mask. They knew each other now through and truly better than they ever had before.

" _Four, respond!"_

With a start, he realized that Vale was still trying to protect him and KT in their comatose state on the ground. It had to have only been a few seconds since they'd fallen, but that was more than enough time for the Amalgamate forces to overwhelm them. He made a note to discuss this with Kay later.

Grunting in effort, he raised them off the ground and into a shaky stance on their feet. "The Seed knows where the array is! It's going to try and follow us-"

In response to his premonition, pods began to streak from the sky above. Descending on the line of drophsips that were providing cover fire, they smashed through three of them before the others hovered backwards in an effort to make a harder target to hit. The three that had been struck quickly lost altitude, and crashed into the ground several blocks away.

Quickly, Vale came to a decision. _"Go! Get to the array, I'll hold them off!"_

He immediately tried to shut her down. "No, that's not happening. I'm not going to lose-"

" _There's no time to argue! I can hold off this lot for a while, keep them off your back as you run to the Gardens!"_ She didn't wait for his permission, and charged into the sea of Amalgamates. _"I'll make my own way back! Now go!"_

He wanted to stay and fight with her, but he knew she spoke the truth. Swearing, he turned and ran out the city exit as she began dispensing a large dose of her leadwall and sword to every creature that approached her. He heard the sounds of battle behind him as the street turned into grass, and KT's pounding footfalls echoed across the plains.

Blisk had said that this was a task for the dragonhearted. He was going to prove him right.

* * *

 _ **A/N: YOU KNOW WHAT**_

 _ **SCREW WHAT I SAID IN CHAPTER 4**_

 _ **I'M MAKING IT CANON GODDAMNIT**_

 _ **In all seriousness, I was hesitant to do this. But you know, I think I found a way for it to be tasteful and still not be a forced thing. I'm sure that Pyrothekid, BrokenLifeCycle, Max100 and beastyboyz are all happy about this …**_

 _ **For those wondering what exactly happened, basically the Seed did the whole "mind-torture" thing that it's done on him before- except this time he was piloting KT, and they were hooked up together directly through their neural link. When it took him, it also took her.**_

 _ **Coming up VERY close to the end here everyone. Be ready …**_

 _ **Until the next time,**_

 _ **\- Matteoarts**_


	22. The Final Fate

The sounds of gunfire fading behind them, Tobias and KT bounded through the grassy plains.

He scanned over KT's HUD to check the map once more. They were on the right track, they just had to keep moving this way and eventually they'd come across the Gardens.

Soon, it became very quiet. The only sounds were KT's footsteps, and various wildlife every so often. Avian creatures flew overhead, oblivious to the severity of the situation. Tobias glanced around with KT's ocular systems, and marveled at the beauty of their location. The sky was blue, the grass was a lively green, the mountain ranges on the horizon provided a sense of powerful scale … it almost made him forget that the planet was under siege from a hostile alien race.

" _Tobias,"_ KT began, her voice oddly quiet. _"What happened in there?"_

He furrowed his brow in thought. "I think that we saw each other as Al'cor's species does. From what she told me, their concept of relationships transcends physical limitations; they're intimate in a more spiritual sense, or something like that."

She remained silent, apparently accepting that answer. He thought of what had transpired in that void-scape; her wonder at seeing her true soul, having a real body; how she'd interlaced her fingers behind his head … pressed her face against his …

He coughed awkwardly. "So, uh … what do we want to do about this?"

KT paused momentarily. _"I don't know."_

"I mean … do you really feel that way? I could sense when we were in there-"

She sighed. _"Yes, I … I do."_ He could sense some hesitation in her voice. _"But I don't have even the slightest idea of how such a … how_ _ **we**_ _could work out."_

"I've seen weirder things on the Frontier," he joked. "But I know what I saw, and what I- what _we_ felt. "

Maybe there was another reason why he and KT were best friends, why they worked so well together. A reason which they'd never considered before, and quite frankly might never have realized if the end of the world hadn't given them the courage to admit it.

And he knew that this wasn't everything there was to KT; she wasn't just a metal husk, a hunk of machinery; she was the beautiful, glowing spark of light he'd seen in the void-scape.

" _You think so?"_

KT wasn't usually one to be bashful around him, but she sure sounded that way now. He took another glance at the Seed in the sky. "I know so; but let's focus on the task at hand before we try and figure this all-"

 _Tobias!_

He was startled at the voice in his head until he realized who was speaking. KT seemed concerned at his sudden stop in mid-sentence. _"Tobias?"_

He waved his hand to assure her he was fine. "It's Al'cor, she's talking to me- hang on." He came up with an idea. If she was communicating mentally with him, did that mean that he could technically do it back? He'd done it with KT before, maybe it could work here-

 _Yes, I can hear you._

He decided to talk this way, so that he didn't bother KT. _What's wrong, Al'cor?_

 _I need to speak with you about the final fate, to warn you of what awaits you._

She sounded anxious, and he remembered that she'd tried to talk to him about it before as well. _Alright. What is the final fate?_

There was a momentary silence before she continued. _The arrays create a field with which to split the metaphysical tie between the Seed and its roots in a separate reality. But that's all it is; it cannot stop the Amalgamation by itself._

He felt everything slow down, as he tried to grasp what she was telling him. _Wait, so everything we've done was for nothing? What about the Tempest, the-_

 _The Tempest_ _ **will**_ _destroy the Seed, but at a cost. Picture gas in the air; it can become a flame, but it requires a spark to ignite it. The Tempest needs a massive amount of energy to trigger it … and the only way we could guarantee that energy source would be available was if we ensured that it remained with whoever activated the arrays._

He tumbled over those words, not quite understanding until they seemed to align in front of him and he stopped breathing. There was no way, not after everything they'd gone through-

He remembered what others had said on Erebus years ago, back when he'd been captured by Blisk after becoming the Inferno …

 _ **As of a few hours ago, our monitors all suddenly light up and say that they've detected a massive energy signature at the excavation site. I don't think you realize exactly what you did, but something that powerful could have blown the planet up. Probably could have blown the solar system up, though I haven't confirmed that with any numbers …**_

He flashed back to Gates rescue of him, Dimitri and the rest of the 6-4 surprised to see him alive and well …

 _ **We detected a massive energy spike a few hours ago, here on Erebus.**_

 _ **Well, it seems the energy marker … is you, Four. Which is odd, considering that the level of energy is consistent with that of a supernova, yet you're still standing and perfectly healthy.**_

He knew now why he'd been chosen as the Inferno. Why Al'cor had needed someone with a good heart to carry its power, and see it through to its ultimate purpose.

She'd needed someone willing to sacrifice themselves.

 _You …_ He couldn't nearly express his shock, his feeling of betrayal to any appropriate degree. _You selected me like a pig for slaughter!_

 _I'm so sorry, Tobias … there was simply no other choice!_ She sounded distraught, truly regretful but he didn't care. He didn't give a damn anymore.

Just once, couldn't he … couldn't he have a happy ending?

 _What will happen to me?_

Another pause. _Your body will die. It won't be able to withstand the exposure to such massive energy leaving you. Your very essence will be used to create the Tempest itself._

He closed his eyes for a moment, taking it all in one step at at time. For the Seed to die, he would as well. Neither would survive the Tempest.

If his life was truly at an end, he wasn't going to let Al'cor get out so easily. He wanted her to know just what she'd taken from him.

He conjured up the memories of several minutes ago, the images of him and Kay in the void-scape. Their true forms as they embraced, as they shared that one euphoric moment of intimacy that no one else had ever felt, that no one else would ever know of or experience …

 _You're a thief, Al'cor. This is what you've stolen from me._

It wasn't just his life. It was any hope of a future for him and Kay.

Unexpectedly, her tone changed. _What … what is this?_

He replied, _The Seed flung us both into a void within the bond between our minds. This is what your own kind does, right?_

She watched Kay close the gap between the two of their faces, and then witnessed the ember of sorts that had split from Tobias' chest and entered KT's as well. She remained silent the whole time, and he wondered what she was thinking about.

" _Tobias, we're here."_

KT's voice broke him out of his mental conversation with Al'cor, and he looked around through KT's optics.

All around them were the same anomalies they'd experienced at the other arrays; floating rocks and dirt, grass that stood straight up in spite of the wind that blew around it. A stream nearby flowed in mid-air, twisting like a blue snake above the ground. The rocks that had been most affected by the gravity were the ones that he'd been here the longest; they'd become stretched, becoming almost pillar-like in appearance.

It was breathtaking.

He checked the HUD. They were quickly approaching the epicenter of the Floating Gardens, where he assumed the array was. He thought fast.

 _Al'cor … don't tell KT about this. Please. She's lost me once already … I'd rather she and I were able to enjoy these last few minutes together without her worrying about what's going to happen to me._

The Architect said nothing.

 _Promise me now, so help me-_

 _I … I promise._

He relaxed slightly. _Thank you._

She said nothing, and he was grateful for her absence. She was allowing him a moment of peace with Kay.

He thought of what he'd just told the Titan, of how they'd find a way to manage with their peculiar situation.

There went that idea.

Suddenly, he stopped. His mind back on the task at hand, he noticed that the HUD was telling him that they'd arrived at their destination. But …

There was no array.

He looked every which way, trying to spot the familiar structure he'd grown accustomed to seeing. But there wasn't any sort of structure in the vicinity, let alone the obvious and specific architectural design that all facilities built by the Architects shared.

" _Where is it?"_ KT whispered. She too seemed bewildered by the absence of the array.

He had one last idea up his sleeve. "KT, scan the area for any kinds of metallic anomalies; namely substances that aren't in your known list of the periodic elements. Increase the intensity to 150%."

All of the structures built by the Architects so far had been constructed from that incredibly durable metallic material. Everywhere from the ruins on Erebus to the spire on the planet of storms, he'd noticed that they all shared that specific similarity. And if his hunch was right.

KT pinpointed a spot on the HUD with a red box, and he turned to face it. It was a large group of those pillar-shaped rocks, though he now saw that many of them were actually embedded in the ground rather than floating. They were pretty damn big too …

" _That group of stone is comprised of non-anomalous rock roughly two feet in, but then transitions to something else; it's almost hollow, like there's a massive gap inside of it, but the gap isn't just empty; it's filled by something the scanners can't identify."_

"And I bet that it's got a very specific shape too," he surmised, "one that matches the other array stations we've seen."

" _I never took you for the gambling type, but you'd wager right."_

He could almost imagine it now; a shift in tectonic plates, an earthquake, hell a massive hurricane that could have blown the starting boulders here.

Whatever the reason, the array was encased within that tomb of rock.

"Can your weapons break through that layer?" he questioned, suddenly unsure.

She hesitated. _"Perhaps given enough time. But that's time that we don't have."_

He had to say that he agreed. Who knew how long it would take the Amalgamates to get here? Then they'd have to deal with them as well as trying to break this damn thing open.

"Alright, I'm gonna have to call a friend here. Hold on."

…

Gates threw her weapon at the abomination in front of her. Having run out of ammo in the magazine, she'd found herself in a particularly sketchy situation when one of the things began running at her on all fours, a massive toothy tendril where its head had once been. In an effort to distract it, she'd chucked the gun and watched as it stared after it confusedly before one of the Pilots behind her blew it apart with an SMR.

Scrambling back into cover, she cursed. They were losing more ground to these things, and the back entrance to the lobby wasn't faring much better. Soon, they'd be completely pinched and-

An incoming transmission caught her eye on her HUD. Answering it, she waited for whoever it was to speak.

" _Gates, it's Tobias."_

"What the hell are you doing?!" she practically shouted, "We need that array up NOW!"

Bear fired the P2016 he'd been given weakly, the recoil increasing the pain he already felt in his wounded arm. He glanced over at Gates as she tried to understand what exactly Four was saying on the other end.

"You found it? Well then- what kind of favor? Are you serious"

After another moment, she swore and gave in. "Alright, alright! Just hurry, dammit. We can't hold out much longer!"

She terminated the connection, and then sent out a transmission of her own.

"Orbital defense, this is Gates. I need you to spare a few of your ships for something."

* * *

 _ **A/N: You guys are VERY lucky. This was going to be the last/second-to-last chapter, but I decided that it works better if I end this here, and finish up the story in the next few ones instead. It's a bit shorter as a result, but all that means is that the next one will be longer. So, more material for you guys. That's a good thing, right?**_

 _ **No other comments from me, I don't want to give anything away.**_

 _ **As always, leave reviews down below, I love reading them.**_

 _ **Until the next time,**_

 _ **\- Matteoarts**_


	23. The Dragonhearted

_**A/N: This isn't the last chapter. I just want to get that out of the way beforehand. That is all.**_

* * *

Tobias heard the roars of the dropships streaking through the sky before he saw them. Turning KT around, he looked upwards to see them finally break the cloud layer and enter a bombing formation.

" _Lieutenant Four, this is Lieutenant Rose of the WOH. You've got eyes in the sky on your position. Suggest you move back while we bring the pain."_

Taking the man's warning seriously, he moved himself and KT back until he was sure they were out of the blast zone. "Just enough to destroy the rocks should do it; I don't want to damage the structure underneath."

" _Understood. We're going to give it a once over, and wait for your word if more is necessary."_

The ships began to dip from the sky, and performed a flyby of the site. One by one, they began dropping munitions onto it, mostly times explosives. He wasn't too worried about the safety of the array; its infrastructure had proven to be quite resilient, not to mention that they'd have to break through two feet of rock before they even reached it. But still, better safe than sorry.

A warning lit up on the HUD, and he looked towards it with a renewed interest. Something big was approaching them from behind.

Fearing that it was another one of those melded-Amalgamates, he quickly spun around with the chain gun ready to fire-

But it wasn't an Amalgamate. It was Skids.

He gave a sigh of relief. "Vale, thank God. I thought-" He froze at the sight of Skids' hull, the door of the cockpit torn clean off.

" _Pilot Vale was ripped from my hull when we became hopelessly outnumbered,"_ the Ronin explained. _"The Amalgamates dragged her out and dismembered her current body. She'll have to be reuploaded into another Simulacrum framework after this is over. But in the meantime, I followed your path to help defend your location."_

Well, at least she wasn't dead. Tobias glanced at him curiously. "Defend the location from what?"

Skids returned his view towards the fields that led back to Chorus. _"From them."_

Peering over the Titan's shoulder, his face grew pale. The Amalgamates in the city had been an onslaught, no doubt about it; but this was an _apocalypse._ Every hill was swarmed, completely covered with the fleshy, mindless atrocities. They surged forward, still a few hundred yards away, but gaining fast. They would overrun the array in seconds if nothing was done about them.

The Seed tried to break through again, and yelled with a voice that demanded worship; _**WE ARE ETERNAL, WE ARE UNDYING, WE ARE ONE! WE WILL NOT BE IMPEDED BY YOUR INTERFERENCE-**_

But he blocked it out. Now, he knew that he wasn't alone in the mental fight against this thing. He had Kay to back him up, and support him whenever he faltered.

He wished he could say the same for her.

He glanced over at the rocks which had been cracked apart pretty heavily. Most of the structure was visible now, including the obviously non-functioning portal. However, the actual array portion of it was still unrevealed.

"Rose, I need you to do another half of a run or so; focus fire on the center of it if you can!"

" _Understood. Coming around for another pass."_

He watched as the jet-like ships began to pull a massive u-turn in the sky, their turn radiuses preventing them from simply reversing outright. But it'd all be for naught if the Amalgamates caught up to them before the array was fully uncovered.

"Alright," he muttered, psyching himself up. "Everything comes down to this! We need to hold off the Amalgamates until the array is clear. Skids, you with us?"

" _Protocol two; uphold the mission."_ The Ronin gave a nod, the vestigial scraps of his ruined cockpit swaying comically with the motion. _"I am yours to command."_

"Then let's do this!" he yelled.

As the ships began to drop more bombs onto the array, Tobias moved into position next to Skids as the front wave of Amalgamates began to pour over the last hill between them and the array. Raising the XO-16, he pulled the trigger back and didn't let go.

High caliber rounds tore through the ranks of the abominations, over-penetrating targets and taking out entire rows of them at once. Skids used his leadwall to pick off any of them that strayed too close for comfort, slicing with his sword whenever he got the chance; he seemed to relish the opportunity to take revenge on them for cutting his Pilot apart.

But it still wasn't enough, just the two of them; they'd make a mistake eventually, and the Amalgamates didn't have to worry about that. With a nearly endless supply of numbers to throw at them, it wouldn't be long before the ones holding MGL's or Archers arrived and began to take their toll. They were having enough trouble with the ones that could be considered cannon-fodder; how would they hold up against the heavy hitters?

That question was almost answered a little too quickly. Streaking out of seemingly nowhere, a rocket from an Archer smashed into the side of KT's chassis. The impact rocked the Titan, and Tobias struggled to keep them from falling.

Acting quickly, he raised a vortex shield. Having chosen correctly, another rocket stopped neatly in his telekinetic grasp, and he flung it at a large group of Amalgamates taking advantage of his vulnerability. It landed at their feet, and blew their bodies in all directions.

Chunks of charred flesh splattered the side of Skids chassis, and it was then that Tobias noticed he was having some trouble. The Titan had needed to reload his leadwall, and the creatures had pressed forward to overcome him. He was trying to slice them, but they weren't going down quick enough.

"Skids!" he called, and threw the chaingun at the Ronin. Catching it neatly in his metal hands, Skids unloaded on the enemies surrounding him.

Unfortunately, that left Tobias and KT unarmed. He raised his fists before KT nervously reminded him, _"May I suggest the automatic missile locking system? It might be preferable to manually smacking them apart with my hands."_

He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "What _doesn't_ this chassis have …" Conjuring up the action in his mind, missile pods raised from KT's back and red squares began to appear on the ocular systems, all over the Amalgamates currently trying to charge them. He just waited until he felt he had enough targeted, and then let loose.

Sparks and flares flew every which way as each missile made its way towards its target. Blowing the walking corpses apart, blackened flesh and orange liquid blasted like spittle from a maw. Though the bodies were unmistakably human, it didn't stop him from feeling contented at their demise.

He was far past the realm of disgust and horror at this point. They'd consumed the galaxy, they'd hunted the Architects to near extinction, they'd killed Tyra …

And because of them, they'd taken his and KT's future.

Al'cor had only been trying to do what was best for the galaxy; and though he still felt betrayed, he understood her motivation. At the end of the day, he was one man; the galaxy was trillions upon trillions of lives; maybe not all sentient, but living nonetheless. Humans, Architects, countless other species …

Everything would have been consumed- would _still_ be consumed- unless he went through with this.

And so it was this line of thinking that provided him with the resolve to continue. That … and the memory of Kay in the void-scape.

The one last happy memory he'd know of before he died.

Another wave of Amalgamates came over the crescent of the hill, but they didn't make it far before a column of fire and smoke erupted at their feet, blowing pieces of them many meters into the air and across the landscape. Tobias glanced skyward and saw Rose's squad dropping munitions on the army of living meat.

" _The array is clear, Four. We'll keep providing support until you get it up!"_

He looked over to see that Rose was right; the array had finally been completely uncovered.

And he knew what that meant.

Waving KT's arm in a sign of thanks towards the squadron, he backed off and let Skids and the ships take over for defense. Returning to the array, he made it within a few meters of it before he popped the hull of the chassis and hopped onto the ground.

He began to walk forward, but noticed a lack of heavy footsteps behind him. He turned to look at KT who was seemingly staring off aimlessly into empty space, as though distracted by something.

"Kay?" he called. "You coming?"

He knew that he'd have to tell her before he did it, and he wanted to get it over with. He couldn't forgive himself if he left her without saying goodbye first.

She blinked, and then stared at him uncomprehendingly. He felt a bit uncomfortable. Did she suspect him?

"What's that look for?" he questioned.

She paused for another moment before shaking her head. "Nothing, I- I was just thinking. That's all."

"About what?"

She waved a large hand dismissively. "It doesn't matter. Focus on it later, we need to get that array up."

He almost wanted to press the issue, but a notification from her popped up on his helmet's HUD. Obviously, she thought he'd have time to read it later. While he wished that he could, it wasn't on his list of priorities at the moment. He'd rather have time for making peace with her than pursuing something that didn't need discussion.

Spinning around, he walked steadily up to the array. With every step, he felt a part of his heart crack.

He'd seen how his imprisonment had affected KT so harshly. It had been the sole cause for her drastic decision to limit her emotional processors until he was rescued. Then, the action of reactivating them had nearly corrupted her core.

How would she move on after he was definitively gone? Especially after what they'd just gone through, how they'd finally seen each other as one rather than individuals …

He felt wetness in his eyes, and he shook those thoughts out of his head. They would only make this even harder than it was already going to be.

Reaching the set of stairs that led to the main event, he gazed up at them with apprehension in his eyes.

This was it. The final fate.

He gave a low exhale to calm his nerves, and whispered softly, "One final effort."

With each step he took, explosions rang out behind him. Skids and the ships continued to fight on his behalf, keeping the Amalgamates away from the array. Allowing him these last moments to reflect.

He thought back to when he'd first met KT in the snow on Erebus, both of them stranded and alone; how they'd had to rely on each other to survive.

He remembered when he officially joined the Militia, and volunteered to become KT's Pilot in order to save her from decommission. Her stare of disbelief at his proposition was etched forever in his mind.

Tyra and Vale manifested in his mind's eye, when they'd first introduced themselves to him on his starting mission for the Militia; the mission that would change everything.

All the heart-to-hearts with Kay, every conversation where they'd grown closer as a team … as friends … as more.

Under the snow of Erebus, where her chassis was doomed and she'd told him to leave her.

In the main compound of the IMC station, when she realized he'd saved her data core and they reunited.

Their tearful goodbye as he stayed behind to ensure that the Militia could find Typhon.

Their joyous reconciliation years later, when he'd been rescued and her emotive processors were reactivated.

Their journey through the cosmos, uncovering this massive mystery that had haunted the galaxy for millennia.

That moment in the void, where he and she had … where they'd finally revealed their true affections for one another.

He stumbled for a moment, and looked down to realize that he'd made it to the top of the stairs. Raising his head, he saw the array ready to activate, the slab of stone ready for his hand.

To the galaxy, it was their last hope. To him, it might as well have been a tombstone.

All of it had been leading to this. This one moment where it all would end.

He felt a rumble in the ground as KT approached from behind, having also ascended the stairs to stand at his side. He swallowed hard, trying not to let his emotions overcome him. It was now or never. "Kay, I … I have to tell you-"

He was completely surprised when he felt her hand wrap around his body and lift him up into the air. She pulled him back until he was farther away from the array than she was, and held him level with her head so that they could look at one another face-to-face.

"Kay, what are you doing?" He didn't want to struggle against her grip, but he was confused as to why she'd pulled him away. She had to know how short on time they were-

"I remember when we first met. How you thought I'd kill you, and how I thought the same about you. I still occasionally think back to when I let you go, and you made the unusual call to bring me a system battery, even though you were under no obligation to help the enemy."

If voices could have an expression, hers would be smiling warmly. "You've always had a good head on your shoulders, Tobias. Keep it that way."

He fell silent, waiting to see where this was going.

"You may remember it too, but not nearly as clearly as I can. I have recordings." Her voice had taken an unusually blatant tone to it, one that commanded his attention. "I can bring up any detail, any ridiculously minute aspect of our meeting, and still remain accurate in its telling."

She blinked. "But all I've ever been able to focus on is you."

"What are you talking about?" he asked quietly. He was beginning to get scared at the way she was speaking.

She looked down at the floor beneath them. "I just … I can't think of any other way to express just how much you mean to me." She waved her hand in a nonspecific gesture towards their surroundings, only emphasized by the continued sound of warfare behind them. "No matter where we are, no matter what we're doing … you're always in the forefront of my thoughts, the center of my attention. Everything I do is to ensure your safety, and fear finds me in every second that I can't account for that."

"Kay, put me down," he tried to order. "We're running out of time-"

"I just …" She looked at him helplessly. "I just want to know … are you the same way? I know the answer already, I always have. I just- I just want to hear you say it."

He sighed. She must know what he was about to do, and wanted to say goodbye on her terms. He could respect that. Not to mention that it gave him a perfect opportunity to come clean.

"Of course, Kay. I … You said once that having a Pilot is like having another half." He took a deep breath to steady himself. "I feel incomplete whenever we're apart, Kay. You're my other half just as much as I'm yours."

She closed the lid of her optics, a gentle hum escaping her. She didn't need to tell him how much those words meant to her for him to know; he could see it in her body language, hear it in the beatific tone of her voice.

"Thank you."

She stood up a little bit straighter, presumably encouraged by his words of endearment.

"Now, I can say goodbye."

He nodded at first, but froze upon realizing what she'd said. Red flags rose in the inner workings of his mind. "What? What do you-"

"Al'cor spoke with me a few minutes ago." Her voice sounded heavier now, much like his had a few minutes ago; the voice of someone bearing the weight of the world on their shoulders. "She told me of what you two discussed, and what would happen when you activated the last array."

He silently fumed at the Architect's interference. All he'd wanted was a few minutes of blissful ignorance for Kay-

"She also revealed a way to save your life."

His train of thought froze, and processed her words once more. Upon affirming that they were correct, he found himself in a state of shock. "But- but how-?"

"The Inferno is the only one who can activate the Tempest," KT recited. "I know that from our journey to initiate the array's proper sequence. And I also know that the reason is because the Tempest needs a massive amount of energy to materialize."

He found himself unable to look away from her gaze. "But … when it transfers from you into the array, it will be too much for your body to handle. It will rip your life force away, and leave nothing behind but a shell."

He threw his arms up as much as he could with KT's hand still holding him. "What other options do we have? The Amalgamation is here, I _need_ to-"

"No," she replied softly. "The Inferno needs to. And … you're not the only Inferno anymore."

He blinked. "Wh … what?"

"Al'cor saw what happened between us in the void. She saw our true selves, and the ember that yours shared with mine." She brought her free hand to her chest. "Only sapient beings can hold it, and as we both know, that includes me. That pulse within both of us … it was the Inferno, being shared from you to me. You didn't give it directly, but now I qualify as the Inferno just as much as you do."

He recalled the crackling fire within him, splitting apart and swirling around Kay before driving itself into her. Only now did he realize what exactly had transpired … and what KT had planned.

"Kay …" he began warningly, but she cut him off.

"Were you going to just leave without telling me your plan again?" He winced, her words carrying a bite as he recalled his deception back on Erebus to which she was referring. "I understand why you would, but … it doesn't make it hurt any less."

Her blue eye bored into him, yet he felt no malice there. "In the end, I know that you did it to save Harmony. To save us. To save … _me._ "

She glanced at the array, and then back to him. "The least I can do is to return the favor."

He held a hand up. "Kay, _please_ don't do this; it was always my job to do this, it was meant to be that way-"

"Not anymore." She sighed with a hint of admiration in her tone. "Call it an accident, call it fate … but one way or another, I have the Inferno within me as well. Either one of us can initiate the Tempest."

She brought him closer to her. "You've saved so many people Tobias, more than you've ever needed to. Just once, just _once …_ let someone else save _you_."

"Kay!" he yelled, his voice hysteric. Not one thing could distract him from his task at hand now; not the raging battle behind them, not the onslaught of Amalgamates, _nothing._ He had nothing else to ask of her, no words to convince her to turn away from this path she'd decided on. But a primal part of his brain refused to accept it, to give in as long as she was still here with him. _"I'm_ _begging you, PLEASE-!"_

"I love you, Tobias." Her blue eye glowed bright with happiness; even in the face of death, she was content simply to spend it in his company. "I'm glad I was able to say it this time."

Bringing her arm holding him back, she threw him away from the array and held her hand over the slab.

He used his jump kit to slow his descent and landed firmly on the grass nearly ten meters away. He began to sprint back towards the structure, but it was too late.

KT's chassis glowed orange, arcs of lightning and sparks running up and down her body as the energy of the Inferno within her ignited all at once. A charging sound could be heard, and not a moment later came the beam from the core of the planet. This one was not blue like the other two, but a reddish-white; it had been imbued with the Inferno.

 _ **NO! YOU CANNOT! ALL MUST BECOME ONE, ALL MUST JOIN US-**_

He stared up at the sky as it shot upwards and out of atmosphere to join with the other two. When the three beams finally connected with one another, something began to take shape in the center. A purplish-blue orb began to grow bigger, and bigger, and-

The entire sky lit up to an almost blinding intensity of light, and he held his hand in front of his face to avoid damage to his eyes. While they were closed, he heard the dying, ethereal scream of the Seed as its connection to whatever was out there was terminated by the reality bomb of the Tempest.

When the sky finally faded, everyone would be able to look up at the sky and see the Seed begin to dry out, its blackened and charred surface spreading to its core as it became nothing more than a dead celestial body; they'd be able to see every Amalgamate corpse fall, and begin to disintegrate with nothing left to tether them to life. Within an hour, a celebration would start across the galaxy as humanity realized that it had been saved from the fate of the Amalgamation.

But Tobias didn't see any of that; what he saw was the still-standing chassis of KT, looking at him with a frozen gaze of both warmth and regret before it fell backwards down the stairs and came to a rest at the base of the array.

He sprinted to her side, unwilling to quite yet accept what he already knew he would find when he arrived. Having landed on her back, he was able to look at her head and see the data core within; dead and completely obliterated from the explosive energy that had wracked it. The familiar cracked lens that had once covered it was now completely shattered, nothing but bits of glass on top of the core's sparking remnants.

Today was a day of celebration for many. For him, it was the first day of mourning.

Pulling his helmet off and setting it on the grass, he silenced all the cheers of victory that had begun streaming over the comms; from the orbital defense, from the city center, everyone. He wanted quiet. He wanted a moment to let the impact of what had just happened hit him.

He just wanted to be alone with his friend.

And so he sat there, tears freely falling from his eyes as he let the pain take him. A Pilot and his Titan, lying on the grass as the end of the world came to an end.


	24. Soulmates

_**Four's Logbook**_

 _{NO ENTRY RECORDED}_

 _{ … }_

 _{ … }_

 _{ … }_

Silently, Tobias pulled off his helmet, and set aside the logbook for the third time in as many minutes. Sighing gently, he held the helmet in his lap while he sat.

Every time he attempted to write any of his thoughts, his mind blanked. More specifically, he just lost the motivation any time he tried to find it. The truth of that matter was that he didn't care about anything enough to write about it.

He didn't care about humanity's victory against the Amalgamation, nearly a week ago now. He didn't care about the ongoing negotiations for a truce between the Militia and IMC, now that they'd seen that humanity had almost been it's own worst enemy before the Amalgamates came along. He didn't care about the promotion he'd been given, raising him to just under Sarah Briggs in terms of rank and command.

The only thing he truly cared about was gone now.

Al'cor had offered her condolences, but he couldn't bear to see her. She'd given her reasoning already, standing by the fact that she'd told KT to save his life; whether he agreed with her was a separate issue. It had been bad enough that he was going to die for the Tempest; now, he'd do anything to ensure that it was him who'd activated the damn array, and not KT.

Tyra's death had hit him hard, just the same as it did to Vale. In fact, he hadn't seen the Simulacrum since he'd escaped Chorus; last he heard, she'd taken some leave to have some time to herself, and mourn privately.

But Kay … well, to say that he'd died a little inside at her ending was an understatement.

He wished that he could do what Vale was, and just leave to be alone for a while. Unfortunately, as indicated by the footsteps bristling against the grass behind him, it seemed that he wasn't allowed to have that luxury.

"Admiral Four," came a young male voice that he could only assume came from a rifleman, "Captain Gates has requested to speak with you … again."

He sighed. "Tell her no, _again."_

The man gave a small cough. "I apologize sir, but … she thought you might say that."

"Thank you, Petrov. I'll take it from here."

He heard the sound of footsteps shuffling away through the grass, and then saw Gates sit next to him on the hill in his peripheral vision. For the second time since she'd met him, she had her helmet off. Her brown hair fluttered gently in the wind, and she stared at him as he continued to look forward and refused to meet her gaze.

"You've rejected every one of my messengers. Figured you'd have a harder time turning me away if I just came myself."

"What do you want?" he asked quietly, his voice not meant as a threat, but distinctly toned to let her know that he'd rather her not be here.

She held her hands up. "I just want to talk, that's all."

He said nothing, which told her that he'd decided it was alright for her to do that.

"'Admiral Four.' It's got a nice ring to it."

He sighed. "I'm just a Rear Admiral, not a full one; I guess that's too much of a mouthful for everyone to say, though."

"Still, you outrank me now," she joked, and faced forward to match his position.

The hill he'd picked was within the plains that the Floating Gardens had been located. Now that the array had been activated, the gravitational anomaly had subsequently disappeared, and all the pretty floating rocks and water had fallen back onto the ground.

Still, even without the floating objects, it was a place of beauty. The mountains and bright blue sky were the perfect serene landscape for the grassy plains. The wind blew just the right amount, providing a cool breeze and rustling the grass without becoming overwhelming.

He couldn't help but think of how much Kay would have loved it.

Gates gave a sigh that mirrored his own. "Look … I'm not gonna pretend that I know what you're going through. I've never had a Titan, since the 6-4 technically isn't even an official part of the Militia. I don't know the bond that a Pilot and their Titan share …"

She glanced over at him. "There's nothing I can say that will take away the pain that I know you're going through. But …" She reached out and held his hand in hers. "I'll be here to for you whenever you need me."

He nodded, silently thanking her. She turned back towards the view of the afternoon horizon he was staring at, and gave a contented chuckle.

"You know … when I first picked you two up from Nedar, the first thing that went through my mind was a question; _what the hell is this IMC Pilot doing here?"_ She shook her head playfully. "I expected to find two survivors, but I didn't expect to see a Militia Titan and an IMC Pilot chumming it up in the garage. Thought you might sit down and have tea if I left you two alone long enough."

She shifted her gaze to him again. "A lot of … _unorthodox_ ideas have gone through that head of yours, Tobias; but whatever made you save her from that blizzard, you better thank it. Keep that weird head of yours, you might need it again someday."

With his helmet off, she was able to see the slight smirk that crossed his features; the first sign of positivity she'd seen from him all week.

She continued, "I never once thought that I was retrieving the best damn Pilot and Titan team I'd ever meet." Her head tilted a little. "First you saved Harmony; now the entire galaxy. Somehow, I don't see you one-upping that."

"I bet you say that you all the Pilots," he joked.

She laughed. "Funny you should mention that, I actually did give Cooper a similar spiel when I saw him after Typhon."

Her head became a little straighter, as though a thought had just occurred to her. "Hey, now there's someone who might … well, who might know what you're going through. You might want to talk to Cooper about all this if you don't want to talk with me. He'd be able to relate better than I can."

He remembered Cooper from the makeshift command center and the mission debriefing he'd read on Operation: Broadsword. She was right, the man would have a better idea of what he was experiencing, considering that he'd lost his own Titan. Though from what he'd heard, it might not be that way for much longer; not if the eggheads managed to extract the shard of his Titan from Cooper's helmet like he'd said …

Slowly, he turned to look at his own helmet facing him in his lap. Gates noticed the action.

"What is it?"

"Say that again," he muttered, trying to put together the pieces that had appeared to him.

She seemed confused. "That you should talk to-?"

"No," he cut her off, "before the thing about the galaxy."

She thought for a moment. "That you might need your weird head again someday?"

 _Keep that weird head of yours, you might need it again someday._

He felt a chill run down his spine as his blood froze and he recounted two very important memories;

 _Actually, I've been grounded here on Harmony because our scientists are testing a theory about reverse engineering a copy of BT stored in my helmet. No real progress yet, but maybe they can bring him back._

And then a week ago, her parting words before she'd … she'd …

 _You've always had a good head on your shoulders, Tobias. Keep it that way._

His breath caught in his throat as a small shred of hope began to worm its way into his mind. He almost didn't want to let it, a bigger part of him just knowing that he'd end up crushing his spirits further if he tried-

But it was worth it.

 _She_ was worth it.

He quickly placed his helmet back on his head to the surprise of Gates. "You know, usually I'm the one who's got an obsession with the helmet."

He paid her no mind, and she became even more intrigued by his sudden concentration. Silently, she watched as he worked.

Flicking on his HUD, he had no idea what he was looking for. He didn't even know how she'd have left something for him, but he had to hope that she did-

A memory flashed in his mind, their discussion before they'd approached the array.

 _Nothing, I- I was just thinking. That's all._

 _About what?_

 _It doesn't matter. Focus on it later, we need to get that array up._

He could feel his arms shaking as he cautiously looked at the sidebar of his HUD, where objectives and mission goals would normally be placed.

There, sitting alone by itself, was the notification from KT that he'd received.

Not willing to waste one more second, he accessed it.

To somewhat of his disappointment, it was a message. Then he realized that even if it wasn't an tool of ex machina to bring her back, this was an opportunity to read the last thoughts she'd wanted to share with him, one that many didn't get to have with their loved ones. He was grateful to have that chance, dammit.

He could already feel the wetness in his eyes as he began to read.

 _Tobias … my best friend._

 _If you're reading this, then all has gone as planned. I have activated the Tempest, and the Amalgamation has been stopped._

 _I know that I have to say goodbye to you in just a minute, but I wanted to give you with a sense of closure that I wouldn't be able to otherwise provide. I know how distraught I was at our separation on Erebus … I hope to save you from that distress._

He choked back a sob, and Gates held her tongue. She could sense that this was important to him, and he was grateful; his emotions were completely overwhelmed at the moment.

 _I cannot say for certain where my feelings for you originated. All I know is that they have been steadily developing since the very beginning of our friendship, and our bond as Pilot and Titan._

 _In spite of what you said many times and even what I told myself, I always feared that I was not truly a person; that because I was constructed from machinery, and not flesh and blood, that it made me inherently inferior to any human. And so, I tried to force back any thoughts of that nature and remain platonic in our link._

 _But that moment we shared just a few minutes ago … where you and I were able to see the real me, my true self behind all the armor and metal plating … and then I took you, and …_

 _God, I've waited so long to do that._

 _All I wish is that we had more time together in that world …_ _ **our**_ _world. Where we're not Pilot and Titan, not Lieutenant Four and KT-0298 … but where we're Tobias and Kay. However, I know that if I were to be granted that request, it would only make me waver in my resolve; it would become my sole desire to spend the rest of my days in your company._

He blinked rapidly, trying to clear his vision as the tears were making it blurry and hard to read.

 _But this is not our world. This is the world where the galaxy, maybe even the universe is at stake. This is the world where countless lives have been consumed by the Amalgamation already, and more will follow if we do not proceed._

 _This is the world where, as a Titan, it is my duty to protect you. Protocol three, after all._

 _The Tempest needs one of us to sacrifice ourselves in order to provide it with enough energy to sustain itself. Either of us would work; but an existence without you is not one that I want to live in._

 _I am sure that you feel the same way; but my circumstances may differ from yours._

He paused, furrowing his brow to wonder at what she meant. He kept reading.

 _From what I've gathered of how the Tempest works, it will tear my very soul from this physical realm, and cast it into who knows where. The energy created by the Inferno is of a metaphysical nature, dealing with realms and dimensions that humanity hasn't even scratched the surface of._

 _As an organic, your life is tethered to your body, from the day that you're born until the day you die- or choose to become a Simulacrum. Vale is able to transfer her consciousness between bodies whilst keeping her soul intact- or maybe not. Who knows?_

 _I suppose that what I'm trying to say is … I'm taking a gamble._

 _My life is tethered to my data core; but that doesn't mean that I can't move from chassis to chassis, or even completely copy myself from the actual core. The only question is a matter of whether my soul would stay with those pieces of me. If they don't, then nothing will have changed. My true self will have been permanently torn from my physical body, and all you need to know is that I love you, and always will; even in death._

 _But if they do act as an anchor, and keep me tied to this reality … then maybe there's a chance._

 _Albeit, it's a snowball's chance in hell; but then again, our entire relationship is based upon that, isn't it?_

 _The odds of us surviving Nedar and that blizzard … they were low, but we made it anyway._

 _The odds of the two of us becoming friends … we had everything against us there. You were IMC, I was Militia. But we made it work._

 _The odds of us being linked as Pilot and Titan … I was going to be decommissioned, but you stepped in and stopped that from happening. You had no obligation to, but you did it anyway._

 _All of these little things, small details that lined up over all of our time together; they build up. If even one thing had not gone the way it had, we may very well not have ended up where we left off._

 _What I'm trying to say is that our entire relationship is based off of hundreds of snowballs, each of which somehow managed to survive its journey into the fiery pits._

 _So … I'm throwing one more in there, and I'm hoping this isn't the one that melts._

 _I've linked myself to the framework of your helmet; upon my death, it will copy over my entire persona, everything that makes me … me._

 _My persona, my memories … and hopefully my soul._

 _And if my soul has gone with it … then I hope to see you soon._

 _Forever yours,_

 _\- Kay_

He didn't realize how still he'd become until Gates prodded him in the shoulder. "I don't mean to bother you, but … are you alright? You look like you might be having a seizure-"

He could barely register what she was saying as he quickly scanned the framework of the helmet, looking for any anomalies with a source point of that notification she'd sent him previously.

It was then that he saw what she was talking about; an entity that had ensured practically the entirety of the unoccupied space on the helmet's built in drives.

 _KILO_TANGO_0298_

With trembling legs, he stood up properly. He looked at Gates who regarded him with a bit of concern in her eye.

"I know what I have to do."

He could feel it in his chest; that pulsing, ever present beat of the Inferno pounding with his heart.

And he knew that, somewhere, there was another beating as one with his.

Gates stood up as well, and looked at him oddly. "What is it that you have to do?"

She stepped back in surprise as she saw a glow begin to physically emanate from his torso, and her mouth opened in shock. She closed it again, and looked at Tobias who seemed to be completely unmoved by it. Though he was wearing his helmet now, she could swear that she could feel him smiling on the other side of the visor.

"I have to find her."

…

 _The sky, previously a stoic grayish blue, began to fill with patches of red and golden flame-colored spots._

 _The wind picked up, becoming a static white-noise that filled the entirety of the void that surrounded her._

 _Slowly, she looked up and became aware of the oddities. When nothing else happened, she felt her spirits fall and she lowered her head back into its previous position; between her knees, as she huddled against a jagged rock, clutching her legs tightly._

 _It was easy to become lost here; the world was as endless as one dared to venture into it. She feared that if she were to go too far, she'd eventually be swallowed by the ever-present metaphysical vacuum._

 _And so she sat there, abandoned and disconsolate; too lonely to comprehend, but too heartbroken to bother with anything other than remaining exactly where she was._

 _What was the point? There was nothing-_

 _She froze, her head still between her knees. After a moment, she passed it off as the wind-_

 _No, there it was again. A call, a cry of despair too vast for anyone to bear._

 _She looked up, and gazed quickly around the world that she'd come to know as her new home, this bleak landscape of solitude and gloom. Where had it come from? And what was-_

 _It cried out again, pleading for her to come. It seemed to have come from behind her._

 _The blue flames of her body flickering as she rotated, she turned to see a faint figure on the rocks like her, steadily growing larger._

 _Was it possible? Did she dare to let hope enter her heart again, to allow it to leap after it had spent so long being weighed down?_

 _The figure beckoned approvingly to her. Yes, let her heart leap. Let it hope, for everything would be alright._

 _Growing ever closer, the figure was revealed to be the man of white flames. She knew who it was, why they were here. She could feel the shared emotions between them; hopelessness, fragmentation, and the weight of the world on one another's shoulders._

 _But above all, she could feel the pulse within her beating as one within him as well._

 _Extending a hand, he waited for her to take it. Let him free her, take her with him back to life's embrace._

 _Gingerly, she placed her own into his grip._

 _The flames within both of them ignited once more, tethering to each other and signifying the bonds that they held, and would always hold with one another._

 _She let herself be pulled closer to him, finding euphoria in his presence._

 _ **You found me.**_

 _He held her tighter, nodding his head._

 _ **I will always find you. You are a part of me, and always will be.**_

 _This time, it was he who bent down to press his face lovingly against hers. She let herself fall into his caress, reciprocating eagerly._

 _He was hers._

 _She was his._

 _Together to the end._

* * *

 _ **A/N: Though I'd consider this a perfect place to end the story, I still have a few things left to wrap up. The next chapter will be the epilogue, where I'll finish off this story as well as discuss the possibility of another sequel with you guys.**_

 _ **One more, everyone. One more.**_

 _ **I'll type it up tomorrow (or today rather, it's 4 in the morning currently), and post it so that you all can have a nice resolution to both this story and any questions you may have.**_

 _ **\- Matteoarts**_


	25. Epilogue

On the battlefield, everyone knows of the fighting prowess held by a Pilot and Titan.

The graceful movements of the Pilot, their feet never daring to touch the ground.

The guardianship of the Titan, acting as both protector and decimator.

And the bond between them … when linked, it's said that nothing can overcome the team of a Pilot and Titan other than an overwhelming force, or an equal.

These are the tenants that all abide by in war, preparing themselves for the great day that a Titan comes to their aid, or the horrific day of seeing one approaching to destroy.

But no one has ever thought of what that partnership entails.

What happens when a Pilot and Titan remain attached … but not for war?

The truth is that the bond between a Pilot and Titan is much deeper than simply a tie of the neurons in the brain. It is a union of two minds, the merging of two beings coming together to become one.

In many ways, it is among the deepest of relationships that one can have.

There has to be a sense of friendship between them, a force that brings them together. In every Pilot and Titan bond, there has to be at least some element of love that causes the two to care so deeply about the other, to protect one another when times are dark.

It was this bond that kept them together, even through death.

It was what made him hopeless. It was what gave him hope that she could be saved.

It was what made her lonely. It was her light in the darkness while she waited for him.

They knew, as they'd discussed so long ago, that just as the bond enhanced their closeness to one another, it would sharpen their pain from the hardships they endured.

But it was all worth it, they believed. For every threat that the galaxy could throw at them, no matter what enemy faced them; it would be worth it so long as they were together.

Together to the end.

* * *

 **END OF TEMPEST**

* * *

 _ **A/N: … I almost can't believe that we're here, but … there are the words, right there.**_

 _ **…**_ _**Kinda. Now this is important, so please keep reading.**_

 _ **As I'm sure you've noticed, it doesn't say 'the end,' it says 'end of tempest.' This is what I meant last chapter, when I said that I would discuss the possibility of a sequel. Will there be a sequel?**_

 _ **The absolute truth is … I have no clue.**_

 _ **As 'Inferno' began to reach its end, you all pleaded for more. Requested for a sequel to continue the adventures of our favorite Pilot and Titan. You actually asked me so much that I changed the original ending of 'Inferno,' and allowed it to lead into this. Without that begging, 'Tempest' wouldn't have even been a thing. And I'm grateful that you all changed my mind, and convinced me to do it.**_

 _ **But a story after 'Tempest' … I just don't know.**_

 _ **It's not that I don't want to, believe me. I love these characters and their story that I've made for them. I would love to continue their adventures.**_ _ **The main things I'm wary of are readers' desire, and plot.**_

 _ **Now, I've toyed with a few ideas to keep these two in writing. I've dabbled with two different ideas for a prequel of sorts, and I might lean towards one more than the other. But as for a full-on sequel, I'm struggling a bit. I have an idea ready, but after the scale of what 'Tempest' just made everyone go through, how would I ever top that?**_

 _ **Tobias and Kay literally defeated an extra-dimensional god of sorts, and stopped the consumption of everything in the galaxy (probably the universe). How can I make conflict seem important after we've probably seen the worst that the galaxy has to throw at them?**_

 _ **And then there's the issue of readers. See, 'Inferno' and 'Tempest,' what I refer to as 'the Architects series,' has amassed a lifetime reader base of around 60,000 readers and counting. That's a lot of people, in case you didn't know.**_

 _ **I wouldn't want to drag out this series longer than it needs to be. Have any of you ever seen Sleepy Hollow? How it was really good for like, two seasons, but then they just kept milking it and the quality went down so much? I don't want to disappoint so many people with potentially sub-par writing.**_

 _ **What I'm saying is that I don't want to squeeze every last drop out of what I've created. So, I'm leaving it up to you guys.**_

 _ **How many of you would want a sequel? How many of you would like the story to end here?**_

 _ **I don't care if you have an account or if you're a guest, I don't care if you're a lifetime-reader or just joining in after finishing the book; if you have an opinion, share it. If you want a sequel, tell me. I will not write one for fear of ruining it, unless I know for a fact that there is a want for it.**_

 _ **This is your chance to influence the future of this series, if it has one. If it turns out that there's more than enough desire for it … then maybe I'll post another chapter to let you guys know what I've decided to do.**_

 _ **In any case, I've loved having you all along for the ride. You all have said at one point or another that I've impacted your emotions and feelings considerably; the truth is that you've done more for me than I can ever hope to do for you.**_

 _ **I don't have a lot that makes me happy in life; but seeing your guys enjoyment whenever a chapter was uploaded, having something to look forward to whenever I sat down to write, the prospect of making so many people happy … it's given me a sense of purpose that I haven't felt in a long time, and I can't thank you all enough for that.**_

 _ **Whether or not a sequel is made, I want to thank you all for being a part of this journey with me, and I hope to see you all again.**_

 _ **Until the next time,**_

 _ **\- Matteoarts**_


	26. (Afterword)

Time.

Everyone was so concerned with … _time._

Even when interfering with the actual fabric of reality and the timeline itself, it seemed that all anybody ever claimed was that time was running out. That there wasn't enough of it to suit their needs.

What humans failed to understand is that time, by its own nature, was simply a matter of perspective. A conceptual construct made by humans to add some sort of meaning to their lives and the events that take place in them. When you saw past the illusion of a limitation, you realized that time is merely analogous to _opportunity._

When your artificial mind can process a hundred thousand calculations in seconds, time slowed down. It extended … gave someone more _opportunity_. More _time_ to work with _._

Spyglass had a hell of a lot of time.

* * *

 **TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

 _ **A/N: Hello, everyone. Obviously, a few announcements are in order.**_

 ** _As I'm sure most of you have guessed, the passage of text you just read is an excerpt from the final book of the Architects' trilogy; "Cinder"._**

 ** _It will be a complete sequel to "Tempest," not just a collection of short stories. I might as well explain a few details of the book; the focus of the first two books was to explore the budding relationship between Tobias and KT, showing how close a bond could be formed between two people who had started off as enemies, but became much more.  
_**

 ** _With this final book, it will be the opposite; instead of rising from the ground up, the core of their relationship will be put to the test like it hasn't before. They'll be forced to take sides, and the consequences of that will be a prevalent force in the story._**

 _ **I don't want to give too much away, so instead I'll move onto the next item of interest.**_

 ** _Not only am I writing a full sequel, but many of you wanted a few short stories for Tobias and KT to participate in. While I'm hesitant to just create a story on the site as a compilation, I'm trying something new; I'm actually going to make a small comic series about them._**

 ** _Now, it's not necessarily canon; but it will be a few drawn skits here and there that Tobias and KT will be a part of, as well as other characters. I need to stress this immediately; I'm not talking god-level art skills, because lord knows I don't have that. I am however, decent, and I hope that you guys enjoy the idea of it._**

 ** _Where might you find it? Well, because of Fanfiction's idiotic rule of not allowing links to be typed out here, you'll have to do a tiny bit of work. They'll be uploaded on my deviantart page whenever I have time; I'm definitely not making this a set schedule, it's just a "whenever I can" kind of thing._**

 ** _If you want to see an early (very early, like an unfinished sketch) preview of a panel, you can go to deviantart and look through my profile page there, try and search "matteoarts" in its search bar. If you compare it to another piece I have on there (a panel for a potential GND concept I had a few months back), you'll see roughly the level of what I'm going to be posting._**

 ** _Now, back to "Cinder."_**

 ** _I'd like to attend to some much needed updates on "The Last Hunter" before I release the first chapter of Cinder. When I have everything in order, I promise that I'll release it._**

 ** _I'm very happy to be taking this journey with you all, and I hope to see you soon._**

 _ **Until the next time,**_

 _ **\- Matteoarts**_


	27. (THE SEQUEL IS OUT)

_**THE SEQUEL IS OUT!**_

 _The sequel to "Tempest" is out. "Cinder" is the final book in the Architects series, and you can find it by looking through my author page, or by scrolling through the story pages here!_

 _Thank you all, and I hope to see you on the next step of this journey!_

 _\- Matteoarts_


End file.
